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SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 



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SPECIAL METHOD IN 
HISTORY 



A COMPLETE OUTLINE OF A COURSE OF 

STUDY IN HISTORY FOR THE GRADES 

BELOW THE HIGH SCHOOL 



BY 



CHARLES A. McMURRY, Ph.D. 

DIRECTOR OF PRACTICE DEPARTMENT, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, DE KALB, ILLINOIS 






Nlfo If 0tfc 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1903 

All rights reserved 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Received 

AUG T5 1003 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS <** XXe. No 

6700*1 

COPY 8. 



Copyright, 1903, 
Bv THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up, electrotyped, and published August, 1903. 



NortoooB Press 

J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



PREFACE 

This book contains a plan of a complete course of 
study in history for the grades below the high school. 
It is an attempt not only to outline this historical 
course, but also to point out with definiteness the 
materials which may appear in each year's study, to 
estimate the value and fitness of the matter selected 
for each grade, and to discuss and illustrate at some 
length the method of handling these materials. 

A separate chapter is given to a somewhat full 
discussion of each of the four grades of work. 

The chapter containing the course of study names 
the topics for each year's work, and also points out 
at length the correlations with geography, reading, 
and literature, while a separate chapter discusses the 
value of these correlations. 

The final chapter contains for each year a care- 
fully selected and arranged series of books for chil- 
dren and teachers. It is hoped that this list will 
enable the teacher to carry out practically the course 
of study which precedes it. 

In order to carry out the plan of oral instruction 
advocated for fourth and fifth grades, the author has 
prepared three small volumes of Pioneer History 
Stories of America, which are designed to furnish 



vi PREFACE 

the suitable story-material which may be easily ar- 
ranged for any part of the country, according to 
local geographical position and needs. 

This book is one of a series of Special Methods in 
the common school studies. The others of the series 
are The Special Methods in the Reading of Complete 
English Classics, in Primary Reading and Oral Work 
with Stories, in Geography and in Natural Science. 

The entire series of Special Methods is designed 
to work out and apply in the detail of each study 
the broad principles discussed in the General Method 
and in the Method of the Recitation. 

A complete Course of Study for the Grades of the 
Common School is in preparation, which will bring 
together in two volumes the comprehensive plans, 
outlines of courses, and full references for all the 
studies of the common .school. 

This course of Study in History, while it estab- 
lishes American history as the central body of his- 
torical material, also draws extensively from the 
history of England and of Europe, and, in connec- 
tion with reading and literature, looks for a still 
wider extension of the child's horizon of thought. 



CHARLES A. McMURRY. 



Palatka, Florida, 
March 24, 1903. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER FAGB 

I. The Aim of History Instruction i 

II. Selection of Historical Materials Suitable 

for the Common School Grades . • 18 

III. History Stories used in the Fourth and 

Fifth Grades. The Method of Oral 
Work discussed and illustrated . . 34 

IV. Sixth Grade in History 119 

V. History in the Seventh Grade . . .150 

VI. Eighth-grade History 181 

VII. The Correlation of History with Other 

Studies . 222 

VIII. Course of Study in History . . • -238 

IX. List of Books arranged according to Grades 269 



SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 
CHAPTER I 

THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION 

Without dropping a plummet to the depths of our 
subject at the moment of embarking, we may at least 
say that it is good for children to gain an intelligent 
interest in the families and persons of their neighbor- 
hood, in the health and comfort of the people of their 
own town, later in the personal history of well-known 
characters, such as Longfellow, Lincoln, John Win- 
throp, Charles Dickens, and John Quincy Adams, and 
in larger matters of public concern. 

This intelligent interest is awakened first of all by 
a lifelike picture of the personal fortunes of men like 
Daniel Boone, or David, or Alfred the Great. Such 
biographies open a highway into the struggles and 
dangers of communities and young nations. The life 
stories also of inventors and benefactors like Stephen- 
son, Fulton, and Peter Cooper, of Florence Night- 
ingale, John Eliot, and William Penn, kindle social 
sympathies of lasting worth. Children are already 
acquainted with persons, and have strong personal 
interests and affections, or, it may be, the opposite. 



2 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

With this early experience as a basis, they can more 
quickly interpret the lives of individuals. They 
tacitly compare themselves with such persons, and 
are stimulated to like feelings and actions. The 
lives of the world's chiefs are often called the very 
substance of history, as in Carlyle's " Heroes and 
Hero-worship," and in Emerson's " Representative 
Men." They serve as examples and ideals to arouse 
enthusiasms, and have an unestimated power in giving 
the initial impulses toward the formation of character 
in children. 

Such biographies disclose to a child the broad 
arena of possible action, and at the same time give 
an impulse to the full stretch of his own best powers. 
A suitable variety of select biographies must act in a 
directly personal way upon each child. The secret 
sources of strength in each boy or girl will thus be 
touched and made conscious. So far as biographies 
are typical or representative, they give insight into 
the common interests of society and are the natural 
introduction to public concerns. 

This intelligent interest may be awakened in the 
common life of the people, as in old-fashioned customs 
and modes of dress, in the style and peculiarity of 
their houses, furniture, and domestic arrangements, in 
their hardships and sufferings caused by war, pes- 
tilence, or drouth, in their toils in field, forest, or shop, 
on lakes and rivers, in their homes and family life, in 
their churches and religious ideas, in their games and 



THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION 3 

amusements, in their schools, jury trials, and prisons, 
in their social, educational, and political gatherings, 
and in the peculiarities of different nationalities and 
races in our own and other countries. 

Two of our ablest writers in recent times, Green, 
in England, and McMaster, in the United States, 
have given us instructive descriptions of the every- 
day life and work of the plain people, thus unveiling, 
as it were, the giant sinews and energies of demos, 
the folk, as compared with the puny arm of princes. 
The teacher of history, like the politician and his- 
torian, has been brought to a change of base. The 
world is no longer chiefly concerned in the acts and 
privileges of rulers and kings, but in the mammoth 
social needs of the people. As individuals hasten or 
obstruct this democratic social betterment, they are 
important. 

In this country, where " We, the people, do ordain 
and establish constitutions," it is fit that the social 
good of all should have the preeminence. 

The will of the people, as expressed in their public 
and private labors, has played and is playing the 
chief part in the progress of our country. These 
powerful folk-tendencies are overwhelming. The 
westward movement of population into new regions, 
the settling up and shaping of new states, have been 
almost wholly due to the folk-energy. The children 
should be led to gain some appreciation of these race 
achievements and of their overwhelming importance. 



4 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

It is not necessary to settle the controversy between 
Carlyle and his critics as to whether a few great men 
have carried the world on their shoulders. In our 
history men have been great leaders to the extent 
to which they have been pronounced exponents of 
the better popular will, — that is, have been true 
representatives of the desires and tendencies of the 
common people. 

An intelligent interest should be awakened in trac- 
ing out the origin and development of ideas and in- 
stitutions. Our history has been a history of strong 
and vigorous growth, not only in numbers and extent 
of territory, in commerce and industry, in products 
and resources, but also in religious and political ideas, 
in state and national constitutions, in educational sys- 
tems, in plans of taxation and revenue, and in all the 
institutions of the most complex life. To trace the 
origin and growth of ideas and institutions is a most 
valuable and interesting study. For example, the 
idea of religious toleration was developed but slowly 
and gradually among the colonists, but led eventually 
to the most important results in giving freedom under 
the constitution, and the complete separation of church 
and state. It is of interest to trace the growth of our 
post-office system in colonial times, then under Frank- 
lin's management, and later under the federal govern- 
ment. It is by tracing these progressive steps in 
commerce, modes of travel, and political and social 
institutions that we get some true notion of the bear- 



THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION 5 

u* 

ing of these things in our present life. Our histo- 
rians have always laid much stress upon the growth of 
political institutions, such as the gradual evolution of 
the representative system, first in the colonies and 
then under the articles of confederation and the con- 
stitution. In recent years much has been said of the 
teaching of civics and civil government in grammar 
schools and in high schools. So far as the grammar 
schools are concerned, the very names of civics and 
civil government seem to point to an abstract con- 
ception of government, to a fixed and formal set of 
documents and institutions. It would be better for 
the children in the common school to find these con- 
stitutions springing up during the history of the coun- 
try as natural and necessary products of the labor and 
thought of the people. They should see that as the 
people grow and change, ideas and constitutions grow 
and change. That all these institutions have the 
vitality of the people's thoughts and need in them. 
We shall get a better view of the aim and educa- 
tive value of history by an inquiry into the question : 
How far can the children relive the past ? can repro- 
duce in themselves the helpful experience of men? 
In thought, feeling, and imagination, to what extent 
may a child live over again the scenes, the dan- 
gers, the struggles, the disasters, and the triumphs 
of previous generations? For example, the long 
labors and the final landing of Columbus in America, 
the life of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the voyage of 



6 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Magellan, the struggles of the pioneers, the scenes 
in camps, in cabinets, in senates, or on the battle-field ? 
If history can be taught in such a way that a child 
may take up into himself the experience of the race, 
that all he has read and studied shall become a part 
of his real self, that the experiences of men in differ- 
ent countries may ripen into the wisdom of the youth 
approaching maturity, we shall see that history may be 
a powerful educator. But a child can live and feel, 
that is, experience, only those things which he can 
appreciate, both by intellect and by sympathy. If 
this part of the aim of history is made good, we must 
be extremely careful in selecting those parts of his- 
tory appropriate to the capacity of childhood and 
youth. 

It should be the aim of history to bring the past 
into manifest relation to the present, and to show how 
historical ideas and experiences are being constantly 
projected into the present, are, in fact, the controlling 
forces in our social and industrial life. The series of 
locomotive engines in one of our great expositions, 
showing the steady improvement of the engine by 
successive inventions, proves that our modern Mogul 
is a concentration of all the inventive wisdom of 
machinists for a hundred years and much more. 
Likewise, every important institution of our present 
society is the evolved product of a whole series of 
historical influences. Such, for example, is a great 
insurance company, a university, a printing establish- 



THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION 7 

ment, the entire executive department of the govern- 
ment, a shoe factory, a department store, and a city 
school system. History should end with giving a 
child a much sharper understanding of the political 
and social world around him. In tracing the evolu- 
tion of ideas and institutions from the beginning of 
American history to the present time, we get a strong 
momentum toward the right interpretation of present 
conditions. This may be asking too much of the 
school when we consider how complex, difficult, and, 
as yet, unsolved many of our political and social prob- 
lems are ; but it is still true that one leading purpose 
of history is to interpret and value the present, to 
estimate properly the ideas and forces which are 
now at work around us. If children have previously 
figured out the expense account of the country in 
achieving present results, if they may realize, as 
Lincoln said, that each drop of blood drawn by the 
lash is paid for by one drawn by the sword, they have 
gained a much better perspective from which to view 
our present problems. It may be said, however, that 
the solution of our present problems lies with men 
and not with children. Yet the swift evolution by 
which children pass from the schoolroom into the 
complex activities of life is a great admonition and 
encouragement to teachers. 

It is often said that one aim of history is to teach 
patriotism. It might be better said that history 
should aim to clarify and purify the sentiment of 



8 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

patriotism. The crude feeling of patriotism is very 
strong and demonstrative in this country, and it is a 
reality, not a boast nor a dream. It greatly needs to 
be purified. Children should be made more intelli- 
gent about our country and more sensitive to its true 
honor and dignity. This result is attainable by the 
schools because the lives, words, and deeds of the 
best patriotic Americans are easily within the reach 
of teachers and children. Disinterested American 
patriots, such as Franklin, Washington, Lincoln, 
Emerson, Bryant, Lowell, and many others of the 
same stamp, have given unmistakable evidence in 
their works and words that they fully appreciated 
that higher destiny toward which America seems to 
be moving. True patriotism, by common consent, 
does not consist in magnifying our own country at 
the expense of England, the North at the expense 
of the South, or America, right or wrong, at the 
expense of the world. To cultivate fair-mindedness 
and honesty, to see clearly both sides of an historical 
controversy, is, in this respect, the true standard of 
history study. Americans have enough to be proud 
of without belittling those who chance to be their 
opponents, and without extravagant boasting as to 
their own deserts. Among other things we can well 
afford to understand our own mistakes and weak- 
nesses, and to accept with fair-mindedness and hon- 
esty some of the superior excellences and institutions 
of other countries, as of France, or England, or 



THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION 9 

Germany. A course of study in history must neces- 
sarily include much historical material from other 
countries, and many noble characters not American. 
We have no end of instructive lessons to learn from 
Europe. True liberality and the broad mental bal- 
ance and charity which go with it are things of slow 
growth, but in the study of history it is the para- 
mount obligation of the teacher to cultivate these 
dispositions both in himself and in the children. 

Following a great trend of educational thought in 
recent years, we may say that it is the aim of history- 
instruction to socialize a child, that is, to make him 
more regardful of the interests of others, less stub- 
born and isolated in his individuality, that is, less 
selfish. Without arguing the point we may suggest 
the sources from which this spirit naturally springs. 
The study of biography is social in its effect because 
it takes the child out of himself and loses him in the 
life and experiences of another. The more biogra- 
phies of the right sort a child studies appreciatively, 
the more his own life is expanded to encompass and 
identify itself with the lives of others. As a general 
thing those lives are most worth studying which are 
social in their disposition, close and strong and mani- 
fold in their social relations. Great men are usually 
representative men, that is, they embody within them- 
selves the sentiments and needs of whole parties or 
classes or nations, in short, are almost purely social 
products. To understand them is to understand the 



10 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

interests of the social classes which they represent. 
The social instinct in children is also deepened by a 
study of the political and religious ideas upon which 
the welfare of millions of people may depend. The 
fugitive slave law, for example, roused the indigna- 
tion of people because it threatened the welfare of 
whole masses of people, both white and black. The 
recent coal strike in the anthracite regions has 
aroused the interest of the nation in the welfare of 
many thousands of people. Not merely that the 
coal strike has directly affected so many people, but 
it has raised the great question of justice, on a large 
scale, between man and man. The conflict between 
Charles I and the Long Parliament interests us 
deeply because it was a struggle for the rights of the 
Commons against the arbitrary tyranny of a single 
man. It was simply a social problem. Industrial 
or political questions which involve the needs and 
comforts of whole classes of people are the nurseries 
of social sentiment. 

It has been often observed that history is a moral 
study. It deals with the subject-matter which illus- 
trates moral ideas and obligations. It teaches morals 
concretely both in individuals and in communities or 
states. But moral ideas always express the higher 
social relations between man and man. History, 
therefore, is preeminently a social and moral study. 
Froude, in his essay on history, says: "And it is 
precisely in this debatable ground of low motives 



THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION n 

and noble emotions ; in the struggle, ever failing yet 
ever renewed, to carry truth and justice into the 
administration of human society ; in the establish- 
ment of states and in the overthrow of tyrannies ; in 
the rise and fall of creeds ; in the world of ideas ; 
in the character and deeds of the great actors in the 
drama of life, where good and evil fight out their 
everlasting battle, now ranged in opposite camps, 
now and more often in the heart, both of them of 
each living man, — that the true human interest of 
history resides." And again: "First, it is a voice 
forever sounding across the centuries the laws of 
right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, 
creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on 
the tablets of eternity. For every false word or 
unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust 
or vanity, the price has to be paid at last ; not always 
by the chief offenders, but paid by some one. Jus- 
tice and truth alone endure and live. Injustice and 
falsehood may be long-lived, but doomsday comes at 
last to them, in French revolutions and other terrible 
ways." 

It is the business of the teacher to use every device 
by which these social ideas and relations may be 
intensified in the study of history. It is a matter 
both of intelligent insight and of sympathetic feeling. 
For this reason history should never be studied in a 
dry, matter-of-fact, formal way. The people of history 
should live before the thought of the child as vividly 



12 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

as the hero of a tale. The imagination must recon- 
struct the pictures of the past vividly. The persons 
studied must be observed with heartfelt interest, 
otherwise the social instinct receives no social stimu- 
lus. Quoting Froude again: "The address of history- 
is less to the understanding than to the higher emo- 
tions. We learn in it to sympathize with what is 
great and good ; we learn to hate what is base. In 
the anomalies of fortune we feel the mystery of our 
mortal existence ; and in the companionship of the 
illustrious natures who have shaped the fortunes of 
the world, we escape from the littlenesses which cling 
to the round of common life, and our minds are tuned 
in a higher and nobler key." 

The teacher is not left without resources when 
asked to teach morals through history. The histori- 
cal materials most suitable for children in the grades 
are prolific in striking examples of social conduct. If 
these illustrations of action are placed clearly before 
the children in their true colors, they will carry 
their own moral. They make their own appeal to the 
child's sympathy and moral judgment. 

As yet but little systematic and well-planned effort 
has been made to accumulate and arrange these 
genuine sources of moral culture in living, concrete 
form. But the materials are now at hand for making 
out such a course, and this highest aim of history 
instruction may be realized beyond anything which 
has yet been attempted. 



THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION 13 

Manual training and constructive work along lines 
suggested by history have been brought into service. 
If a boy constructs a wigwam, dresses like an Indian, 
and makes bows and arrows to shoot with, he comes 
into closer sympathy with Indian life. If a child 
produces a miniature log-house and its surroundings, 
he gets closer to the reality of pioneer life. By 
reproducing houses and various simple products of 
industrial art, a child not only finds expression for 
his motor activities in manual effort, but he comes 
into a closer sympathy and understanding of the 
people whose fabrics and houses he attempts to 
reproduce. It may be said that this is only another 
way of repeating in the child the experience of the 
past, and of working it over into his physical and 
mental organism. Anything in the way of drawings 
made by the children, constructions, or efforts at 
weaving and industrial production, which give vent 
to a child's motor impulses, as touched into life by 
a good story, will produce a more pronounced and 
lasting effect. This is at least one important illustra- 
tion of the increased vitality given to studies by the 
exercise of constructive activities. 

To what extent the course of study in history 
should incorporate into itself the primitive industries, 
and give play in the shop to the manual and con- 
structive activities which are involved in the growth 
of the typical industrial arts is still an open ques- 
tion. 



14 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Some educators are inclined to think that the entire 
course of study must be reorganized on this basis, 
that the development of the social instincts into clear- 
ness and force depends upon direct participation 
through school exercises in the essential modes of 
industrial life. To my mind this question involves 
the course of study in geography and natural science 
quite as much as that in history. 

Manual training or constructive work seems des- 
tined to occupy a great place in the coming curricu- 
lum of the common school. There is a large demand 
for it in order to secure effective work in history, 
geography, and natural science, and even, perhaps, in 
arithmetic and literature. Its vitalizing power, how- 
ever, I think, depends upon its being identified 
with those several studies as an essential ingredient, 
not upon its being made a study apart from the 
others. 

The study of history produces a kind of mental 
discipline which is peculiar to historical materials as 
distinguished from the exact methods of natural 
science and especially of mathematics. Historical 
studies, properly conducted, lead to a thoughtful 
weighing of arguments, pro and con, a survey of 
both sides of a question so as to reach a reasonable 
conclusion. These conclusions are not exact mathe- 
matical deductions. They are rather inferences based 
upon the careful weighing of probabilities. Hinsdale, 
in discussing the educational value of history, says : 



THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION 15 

" As remarked above, historical knowledge is moral 
knowledge. Mathematical studies deal with certain 
data and their method is demonstration. They start 
with definitions and axioms that are intuitively per- 
ceived, and proceed by necessary inferences to inevi- 
table conclusions. There is no gathering of facts, no 
balancing of opposite arguments, no halting or hesita- 
tion. There can be no looking at the other side, 
because there is no other side. Uncertainty is an 
impossible state of mind. Very different are the 
problems of practical life, springing out of the rela- 
tions of human beings. Very different the transac- 
tion of human business. Here we accumulate data, 
weigh the force of opposing evidence, reconcile con- 
tradictory views, and at last reach probable con- 
clusions. No merchant, manufacturer, or ship-owner 
can demonstrate that a given venture will be success- 
ful. Generals cannot certainly predict the issue of 
battles and campaigns ; if they could, battles would 
not be fought or campaigns be waged. Politicians 
are not absolutely sure that canvasses and elections 
will turn out so and so. And so it is with the 
teacher, the preacher, and the moralist." In accord- 
ance with this idea the problems of historical instruc- 
tion are the means by which a certain thoughtfulness 
and judicial-mindedness are cultivated. History, even 
with children, becomes a training of the judgment. 
For the practical purposes of life it is just as im- 
portant for a child to acquire this careful habit of 



1 6 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

reasoning upon probabilities and of reaching approxi- 
mately correct results as that he should be trained in 
exact mathematical reasoning. 

History should be so taught that it may contribute 
largely to the better understanding of many topics in 
literature, geography, and natural science. Without 
the background and general setting of history much 
of the best literature based upon history cannot be 
understood and appreciated. One needs to get a 
framework of Scottish history and geography in 
order to understand Scott's " Marmion," " Lady of 
the Lake," and "The Lay of the Last Minstrel." 
Many of Webster's great speeches can only be un- 
derstood in the light of the whole previous history of 
the country, and this statement may be made also 
of many of the best poems, ballads, novels, orations, 
and essays in our English literature. History sup- 
plies, therefore, much of the concrete material and 
the broader survey of historical events which consti- 
tutes a basis for understanding some of the best 
literature of the world. This gives us really an or- 
ganic or vital relation between these great studies. 

In summing up the conclusions of this chapter in 
regard to the aim of history instruction we may say 
that it should be so taught that children may become 
thoroughly and intelligently interested in individuals 
and in the concerns of society. It is a still better 
formulation of this aim to say that children shall re- 
produce in themselves the experiences of the suitable 



THE AIM OF HISTORY INSTRUCTION 17 

educative epochs in history. A still stronger empha- 
sis is given to the chief aim of history by centring 
its lessons upon the effort to socialize and humanize 
the children by an intelligent and sympathetic treat- 
ment of the moral relations of men. History is thus 
preeminently a moral study and moral practice. To 
give a vivid and intense realization of social duties 
and obligations is the essence of the best history 
instruction. 

A great moral-social aim has such kingly power 
that it draws into its tributary service other impor- 
tant aims which some have set in the chief place. 
Among these is a pure and liberal patriotism, intelli- 
gent and fair-minded. The mental powers are also 
exercised in a mode of reasoning peculiar to histori- 
cal materials which calls for a well-balanced judg- 
ment in the weighing of arguments, and in estimating 
probabilities. This is a most useful form of reason- 
ing, constantly needed in our everyday problems. 



c 



CHAPTER II 

THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS SUITABLE 
FOR THE COMMON SCHOOL GRADES 

To select the best historical material which the 
world can furnish to children in the common school 
is not an easy task. It is necessary to keep in mind 
both the children's capacity to appropriate histori- 
cal knowledge and the character of those historical 
materials which are needed to interpret modern life. 
We must also remember the chief aim to socialize 
and humanize the child by causing him to experience 
the best epochs of historical growth. 

We may first draw the line of separation between 
history and several very closely related studies with 
which it is frequently confused. Some writers are 
accustomed to include the mythologies and folklore 
commonly taught in the primary grades as a part of 
history, but for our present purpose we wish to dis- 
criminate history from the myth and legend and to 
limit it chiefly to what is now understood as authentic 
history which will stand the tests of modern methods 
of verification. 

We are also disposed to draw a sharp line between 



THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS 1 9 

history and literature, such literature, for example, as 
the Homeric poems, the old English ballads, the 
Arthurian legends, Virgil's "vEneid," the story of 
"Siegfried," " Marmion," and many other historical 
poems and classics. Historical novels, likewise, even 
the best of them, are not included in the term " his- 
tory " as we are now using it in connection with the 
school course. All of these literary materials are 
wrought into the school course, partly in the oral story 
work of the primary grades, partly in the regular study 
of reading throughout all the grades, and partly in 
supplementary readings both at school and home. 
This line of demarcation between history and litera- 
ture casts no discredit upon literature, mythology, and 
historical fiction. A full course of study in the best 
literature of America and of other countries should 
be provided in the common school curriculum, and is 
presupposed. This whole subject has been fully dis- 
cussed in the " Special Method in Reading of Eng- 
lish Classics," and in the "Special Method in 
Primary Reading and Oral Work in Stories," of this 
series. 

History proper deals with materials which have 
historical veracity, which are based upon good author- 
ities and may be accepted as true. The teacher of 
history is expected to assume the standpoint of the 
modern scientific historian, at least so far as the use 
of authentic material is concerned. Not that the 
teacher himself is a historian, but he should use 



20 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

materials which good historians have pronounced 
trustworthy. It is not expected that the teacher 
himself will become a technical critic or that he will 
try to make such critics of the children. But there 
are certain credulous, one-sided historical books 
which he should avoid. Biographies giving undue 
praise and credit to historical characters should be 
avoided. Books which are ultra-patriotic in their 
approval of all things American are not healthful 
historical books. On the other hand, it is not ex- 
pected that children shall be trained to a carping 
criticism of great men, or that they should exercise 
a premature wisdom in judging the leaders in history. 
What is needed is, rather, a solid respect for histori- 
cal truth and a disposition to know the facts and to 
learn the lessons which history really teaches. 

In laying out a course of study in American and 
other history we may get at a good result by the 
negative process of deciding what historical materials 
should be excluded from our school course. We will 
attempt, therefore, to fix a table of exclusions. 

i. Anything like a full chronology, either of 
American or European history, is out of the ques- 
tion in the common school. This sort of systematic 
chronology has been in vogue in our schools to a 
considerable extent, but it is rapidly passing away. 
For children it is certainly necessary that only a few 
important dates be learned. 

2. A brief systematic survey of the history of the 



THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS 21 

whole world, which has been strongly recommended 
by some teachers, seems to have very little real basis 
in the needs of children or of society. Such an out- 
line, if at all appropriate, should be the result of 
historical study at the end of the course, rather than 
a preface to it. It is inevitably a dull piece of work 
and cannot be defended even upon the ground of 
pure discipline, the belief in which is fast giving way 
to a more rational conviction. 

3. The genealogies of kings and royal houses, and 
the endless series of court intrigues which once con- 
stituted a good share of the text-books in history, are 
now recognized as worse than valueless to children. 
Some critics, like Herbert Spencer, have almost 
totally rejected the study of history in our common 
schools because it was made up of such trash. 

4. Many large periods of European history can be 
esteemed of no particular value to children up to the 
age of fourteen. They should not be dragged over 
the whole long chain of events as a prelude to the 
study of later ages. 

5. The study of wars and military campaigns 
should be cut as short as possible. There are, in- 
deed, some honorable and some horrible lessons to 
be learned from the study of war, and the impression 
of its destructive and devastating character, its ruin- 
ous influence upon society, should be made as plain 
as possible. Thus far, curiously, in the history work 
of schools, war has been chiefly glorified and its 



22 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

inhuman and distressing phases overlooked. If 
taught at all, the truth about wars ought to be 
told and its brutalities, as well as its heroisms, ex- 
posed. This can be done by an occasional detailed 
treatment of a military campaign or battle. In a 
Christian nation it is quite admissible to bring out 
the selfish and unrighteous causes which have led 
to war, and the plundered fields and towns, and the 
broken and mangled families which are the sure 
and incurable results of war. 

6. The philosophy of history is not a thing to be 
taught in the common school, and this applies also 
to some of those generalizations which even our 
text-books commonly supply. It is, however, of little 
value to children to memorize these general infer- 
ences. They presuppose just such a knowledge of 
the facts as the children should be engaged in ac- 
cumulating. Both teachers and text-books easily 
drop into this humdrum method of summing up his- 
torical events. The pupils get little out of it except 
a routine drill which dulls the sensibilities. 

7. Recent and contemporary history is perhaps 
the most difficult of historical studies, and for this 
reason have little appropriateness to children. The 
history of a hundred years ago can be much more 
easily understood by children than the current events 
of to-day. It takes a very wise and experienced 
scholar and man of the world to judge correctly any 
of our present political and social controversies. 



THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS 23 

We may say, on the one hand, that it involves the 
whole purpose of the course in history to bring the 
child to a point where he can get an intelligent in- 
sight into the present life of the people, but on the 
other side it may be said with equal truth that it is no 
part of the business of children to solve our present 
problems. It is the province of the course of study 
in history to put children in possession of those facts 
of our historical growth which will bring them to the 
threshold of the present with an intelligent equip- 
ment for these modern problems. We may say, there- 
fore, that the schools can spend very little time in 
discussing our present political and social problems. 

In this table of exclusions we have named a num- 
ber of things which are of little value in our historical 
course because they are not educative in the best 
sense. Not appropriate to the thought and activity 
of childhood. 

As to positive demands, our course of study calls 
for the selection of a few leading biographies and 
larger topics of American and of European history. 
These great topics should be appropriate to children, 
and educative in the sense of our aim. They should 
be topics in which the impulsive life of the children 
can find free and adequate utterance. They should 
appeal strongly to their interest and understanding, 
and enhance social spirit and intelligence. 

These requirements are fulfilled first of all by 
biography, but biographies are of many sorts, and 



24 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

the great majority of them are not of special interest 
or value to children. Biographical stories of the true 
stamp have a wonderful attraction for boys and girls, 
and even for men and women. There is perhaps 
nothing more interesting and instructive than the 
strong and manly effort of individuals under the 
stress and strain of life's problems. 

There are also certain epochs of history which 
have a marked attractiveness for young people. For 
example, the age of chivalry and knight-errantry, the 
age of maritime exploration, the war of Greek Inde- 
pendence against the Persians, and the American 
Revolution. As children grow older their inter- 
ests change and centre upon more complex and 
difficult historical personages and events. It has 
been one of the chief aims of educators to find out 
the series of epochs in the world's history which are 
most interesting and instructive to children in their 
successive stages of growth. As yet there seems to 
be no general agreement upon this point, and there- 
fore our courses of study are in a shifting and uncer- 
tain condition; but so much, at least, seems to be 
established, that a few important epochs well treated 
in a descriptive and even dramatic fulness, are far 
better than a systematic, chronological survey of the 
history of many nations. 

There are also important topics which show a con- 
tinuous development, working out step by step, 
through many years, an important result. For ex- 



THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS 25 

ample, the discovery, exploration, and settlement of 
America, or the origin, growth, and outcome of sla- 
very. It is an interesting and worthy study to trace 
out one of these topics in its causal sequence of 
events. Even a single event, like the adoption of 
the Constitution, is the important culmination of a 
long and complex series of historical causes which 
it is one of the great lessons of history to trace out. 
In these different ways important topics should be 
selected and arranged in the course of study which 
will give a full and adequate exercise of the mental 
powers of the children, awaken their spontaneous 
interest to a vigorous action, and help them to appre- 
ciate the chief historical influences. 

In projecting the course of history for American 
children, it will be acknowledged on all hands that 
American history should have a prominent place. 
Thus far, in our common schools, it has practically 
occupied nearly the whole time given to history. 
But English and European history have received 
some attention, and are getting more and more recog- 
nition as a part of our school course. 

It is well, therefore, to inquire definitely into the 
scope and educative value of American history. It 
is not only our own, but it is extremely rich in edu- 
cative elements. 

1. It exhibits the movement of political, social, 
and industrial forces, through the chief stages, from 
the simplest crude arrangements of the early settle- 



26 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

merits up to that vast system, with its great com- 
plexity of institutions, which we now call our national 
life. I think it would be impossible to find any 
other nation in which the chief stages of modern 
history are better illustrated, and in which there is 
less backward movement or halting progress. The 
growth of institutions has been steady, incessant, 
and rapid. To trace out this movement in our 
history is as good a preparation as can be made 
for the understanding of our present political and 
social affairs. Professor Turner says : — 

" Loria, the Italian economist, has urged the study 
of colonial life as an aid in understanding the 
stages of European development, affirming that 
colonial settlement is for economic science what the 
mountain is for geology, bringing to light primitive 
stratifications. 'America,' he says, 'has the key to 
the historical enigma which Europe has sought for 
centuries in vain, and the land which has no history 
reveals luminously the course of universal history.' 
There is much truth in this. The United States 
lies like a huge page in the history of society. Line 
by line, as we read this continental page from west 
to east, we find the record of social evolution. It 
begins with the Indian and the hunter ; it goes on 
to tell of the disintegration of savagery by the 
entrance of the trader, the pathfinder of civilization ; 
we read the annals of the pastoral stage in ranch 
life ; the exploitation of the soil by the raising of 



THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS 2J 

unrotated crops of corn and wheat in sparsely settled 
farming communities ; the intense culture of the 
denser farm settlement ; and finally, the manufactur- 
ing organization with city and factory system. This 
page is familiar to the student of census statistics, 
but how little of it has been used by our historians. 
Particularly in eastern states this page is a palimpsest. 
What is now a manufacturing state was in an earlier 
decade an area of intense farming. Earlier yet it 
had been a wheat area, and still earlier the ' range ' 
had attracted the cattle herder. Thus Wisconsin, 
now developing manufacture, is a state with varied 
agricultural interests. But earlier it was given over 
to almost exclusive grain-raising, like North Dakota 
at the present time." 

2. At every stage in this progress our country 
has been fortunate in the character of its leading 
men. Looked at from the standpoint of the educa- 
tion of the young, what can be more fortunate than 
that we should have among those persons with whose 
life and deeds every boy and girl is to become well 
acquainted, such men as John Winthrop, William 
Penn, Columbus, Roger Williams, Franklin, Wash- 
ington, Samuel Adams, Marion, Robert Lee, Cham- 
plain, La Salle, and many others who were persons 
of very unusual force and excellence of character. 
It can hardly be called boasting to say that no other 
country has, in its early history (that part which 
children most study), such a remarkable and superior 



28 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

body of representative men. When the personal 
history of these people is once properly presented 
to our boys and girls, its social and moral influence 
upon the character of the youth of America must 
be incalculably great. 

3. This history is complete, authentic, and reliable, 
so that the truth can be told without disparagement 
to its culture effect. From the very beginning of 
our history the main facts are well established. 
There is no dim twilight of myth and legend, such 
as is peculiar to the history of every European state. 
We know the essential truth about the men and 
women who settled the thirteen colonies ; what 
hardships and dangers they met, and what sort of 
character they exhibited. All this is thoroughly 
interesting and instructive to children, even more 
so, perhaps, than the heroes and exploits of mythical 
antiquity. 

4. The story of our earlier national history in 
colonial times is full of those simpler, ruder forms 
of industrial life which furnish suitable working 
problems for the children in manual construction. 
The tendency of children to reproduce the condi- 
tions and surroundings of those whose lives and 
adventures are thoroughly interesting is well known. 
The early pioneers in America were builders and 
workers, hunters and fighters, men who knew how 
to make and use the spade, the axe, the oar, and 
fishing tackle, the spindle and the loom. Their 



THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS 29 

first constructions were of the rudest and simplest 
character. Log-houses, breastworks, forts, and pali- 
sades were among their first necessities. They 
were compelled to build up everything from the 
simplest beginnings in a land where absolutely none 
of the conveniences and products of civilization 
were to be found. They not only built their own 
houses and made their own furniture and fireplaces, 
they also prepared their own clothing from furs 
and hides, or from coarse cloth which they had 
spun and woven. From the forests they cut down 
the trees, from which to construct homes and forts, 
boats and ships. They cleared the ground and 
raised their own crops. They went out in fishing 
smacks and soon became bold and hardy fishermen 
along the coast of New England, or equally bold 
and fearless Indian fighters, or emigrants into the 
region farther west. The clothing, tools, implements, 
and weapons which they employed, the axes, levers, 
wedges, guns, and cooking utensils, boats, and tackle, 
were such as boys love to bring together for their 
hunting and outing trips. The necessities of the 
home and of the family caused them not only to 
make clothing, but also to produce salt and sugar, 
to put up meats and fruits, to raise vegetables, 
poultry, and domestic animals, and to supply them- 
selves thus with all the means of food, shelter, and 
clothing which their ingenuity could devise. With 
their own hands, little by little, they actually 



30 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

produced all the material objects of a civilized 
society. 

The Indian life furnishes additional construction 
for boys and girls. Manual employments, suggested 
and stimulated by interest in these history stories, 
are undoubtedly a strong means of converting his- 
tory into personal experience, and of causing the boy 
to realize, in the fullest degree, the historical events 
in which he is absorbed. 

For these and other reasons, we are disposed to 
grant an unusual importance to early American his- 
tory, and to give it a large place in the school work. 
In fact it may well serve as the backbone of this 
part of the course of study in history. Such parts of 
European history as contribute to a better under- 
standing of American history or deal with equally 
important or kindred epochs in the life of nations 
will be brought into proper relation to the similar 
subjects in this primary course in American history. 

The Selected Parts of European History 

In the vast array of important historical material 
furnished by the history of Europe, it is plain that 
only a few striking and prominent incidents can be 
incorporated into the graded school curriculum. 
First, because much of that history is beyond the 
comprehension of children, and second, because the 
time possible for historical instruction is very limited. 



THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS 31 

It would be a sad mistake to overload the children 
with a mass of memorized detail, or to distress them 
with a schematic outline of the whole. 

There are certain epochs in European history, like 
the coming of the Angles and Saxons to England, 
the Norman Conquest, the Reformation, and the 
Puritan Revolution, that have a world-significance. 
They are like mountain peaks which tower aloft and 
show the trend of great mountain chains. There are 
also certain lofty characters, like Alfred the Great, 
Caesar, Charlemagne, Luther, Alexander, Isabella, 
Cromwell, and Napoleon, who have taught the world 
such commanding lessons that every child should 
have a chance to grasp in a few points the signifi- 
cance of their lives. These great events and per- 
sonages belong to the supreme thought and experience 
of the race, and children should carry with them from 
school a distinct remembrance of such characters. 
In making the selection of these few conspicuous 
topics we must always regard the age and capacity 
of the children, and the real educative or culture 
value of the material selected. 

It is evident that biography must here also have 
the lead. A few individuals of striking and convinc- 
ing personality must be selected. Hannibal in the 
Punic wars, Caesar in his conquest of Gaul and Eng- 
land, John Hampden in the contest with Charles I, 
Bismarck in the Unification of Germany, sum up in 
their personalities the most important political ideas 



32 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

and events. In intermediate grades the hero tales 
of Regulus, Alfred the Great, Richard I, Robert 
Bruce, and Leonidas may be employed. 

Again, many of the topics in earlier American 
history have their other half in Europe, and the 
immediate events in Europe demand a clear presen- 
tation. The stories of Raleigh, of Penn, of Columbus, 
of Magellan, of La Salle, and of all the colonial set- 
tlements have their preliminary basis of action in 
Europe, and the preceding events in England or 
Spain or France need a clear statement. Even the 
lives of Franklin, of John Paul Jones, and of other 
Revolutionary leaders are largely European in their 
surroundings and influences. 

There are also European topics which are but en- 
larged treatments of American topics. The English 
Revolution and the Commonwealth, the Reformation, 
and the Colonization of America as viewed from 
Europe are enlargements of the points of view which 
we gain from the study of similar and closely related 
events in America. As will be later seen, many 
American subjects can be far better understood in 
England or France after kindred events have been 
studied on a smaller scale in American history. This 
close causal connection between events on the two 
shores of the Atlantic needs to be clearly traced out 
in order to get a true understanding of the importance 
and meaning of each. 

It seems clear that children, by the time they 



THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS 33 

leave the common school, should have at least 
gained not only a bird's-eye view of the large and 
far-reaching events in European history, but also 
considerable insight into a few striking character- 
istics of each of the leading nations, as of the 
Romans, the Germans, the Spaniards, the French, 
and the English. When did these nations stand out 
most prominently in the world's work ? Are they 
still progressive or have they dropped behind in the 
world's march ? A few of these conspicuous persons 
and peoples may be treated with sufficient detail to 
arouse a real interest and to produce intelligent 
insight into their character. 



CHAPTER III 

HISTORY STORIES USED IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 

We assume that American history will furnish us 
the chief materials for our course of study in history. 

In the three primary grades we plan for no regu- 
lar historical instruction. The use of a few simple 
history stories in primary grades at Thanksgiving 
and Christmas time, and on national celebrations, 
may serve as a prelude to the steady and purposeful 
studies which begin in the fourth grade. In the 
third grade also it may be well to discuss the family 
and neighborhood traditions, and the stories of a few 
of the early settlers in the home district. 

The regular course in American history may be- 
gin in the fourth grade with a number of choice 
pioneer history stories of the United States. In 
selecting and arranging these stories we are con- 
trolled by two considerations. First, that they be 
taken from the simple, primitive period of early dis- 
covery and settlement, and not from the complex 
surroundings of a more advanced stage of society. 
Second, that the best early stories of the home state 
should be studied first, and that the movement be 

34 



HISTORY IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 35 

gradually outward toward the neighboring states and 
to the whole of North America and the world. For 
example, in the Mississippi Valley states the pioneer 
stories of that region should be the first history les- 
sons for children, and later, the stories of the eastern 
and far western states. In New York state the 
stories of Hudson and Champlain would naturally 
come first, while in Virginia, Raleigh and Smith 
would have the preference. The order in which the 
stories are taken up will thus vsry in different parts 
of the United States. Two chief reasons may be as- 
signed for this. First, the character of pioneer ex- 
ploration and discovery is essentially the same in all 
parts of the United States. It has everywhere the 
same simplicity and the same difficulties and dangers 
to meet. Second, the chronology of pioneer events 
has at first little importance for children. The great 
thing is to produce strong impressions by a complete, 
animated, realistic portraiture of a few leading char- 
acters and the events in which they figured. 

In nearly all cases the more difficult stories of 
Columbus, Magellan, Cortes, and Drake may be 
handled to better advantage in the fifth grade. Two 
years (fourth and fifth) are thus given to the pioneer 
period of American history dealing with the life ex- 
periences of explorers and the very earliest settlers. 

As indicated in the course of study, a number of 
English and European history stories should be 
handled in these same grades. They spring from 



36 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

the earliest historical epochs, and have primitive sur- 
roundings which children may understand. They 
fit in well with the American stories. 

It is our opinion that in teaching all these stories, 
both American and European, the geographical back- 
ground should be kept clearly in mind. Wall-maps, 
globes, and blackboard sketches should be used in 
every story to make clear the simple geographical 
surroundings in which the action takes place. One 
reason why the stories of Columbus and Magellan 
are more difficult than those of Boone and Cham- 
plain is that the former requires a knowledge of the 
whole earth and of the maps then used, and of the 
vague ideas then prevalent on geography. 

Our first American history belongs to the heroic 
age. It was the blossoming time for deeds of indi- 
vidual heroism. But it is practical and real. The 
old heroes of mythical times had to do with mon- 
sters and demigods, or with the huge forces of na- 
ture in uncouth personifications, as Polyphemus, 
Scylla, and Charybdis. The heroes of this new world 
had more real and tangible hardships. Mountains, 
forests, rivers, stormy oceans, wild beasts, and In- 
dians, and other untold hardships and distresses of 
people far from their sources of supply. The early 
explorers and settlers of our land first discovered and 
opened up its stretches of forest, mountain, and 
desert ; then struggled manfully against savage diffi- 
culties to gain possession of its soil, and finally 



HISTORY IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 37 

labored slowly and painfully to build houses, roads, 
villages, and all the later institutions of culture. It 
can hardly be said that the earliest of these history 
stories can be used to advantage before the fourth 
grade, but for children of this grade they are well 
adapted. 

It is not uncommon to find history stories in use 
in the first and second grades, and some even of our 
kindergartners employ the story of Columbus and of 
Washington and of others with still younger chil- 
dren. They claim also that much interest is awak- 
ened by such stories. We believe that children of 
the first and second grades are not mature enough 
to grasp these historical narratives in their geographi- 
cal setting. We wish to use the stories at that point 
where they will produce their full educative effect. 
Nor do we believe that a story should be repeated 
from year to year in successive grades. Let the 
story, with its full accompaniment of local and geo- 
graphical environment, be told by the teacher and 
reproduced by the children at that time when they 
are able to understand it clearly and receive a strong 
and permanent impression. We have tested these 
pioneer histories from time to time upon children of 
the third and fourth grades, and have reached the con- 
clusion that third grade pupils are not quite equal to 
a satisfactory grasp of them. An exception to this 
rule has been noted in the use of a few stories in con- 
nection with Thanksgiving and other holidays. 



38 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

The following discussion will make plain the quali- 
tative elements in these stories that fit them for use 
in the fourth and fifth grades rather than at other 
periods of the school course. 

The pioneer stories constitute the first stages of an 
unbroken series of history studies, beginning in the 
fourth grade and extending beyond the limits of the 
common school. Taking up first the best early biog- 
raphies of the home state, we advance to adjacent 
parts of the country, north, south, east, and west, 
until the main lines of pioneer life and its leading 
characters in the earlier history of the United States 
have been treated. 

Children should begin history as soon as they take 
a strong and intelligent interest in its simpler phases. 
Till of late, American history was not taught below 
the grammar grades. But now there is a strong ten- 
dency to use biographical stories in intermediate 
grades. This, we believe, is a correct instinct. 
Some of the chief lessons of history can be better 
taught in the intermediate grades than anywhere else. 
The educative effect of heroic stories seems deeper 
at this point than at any other time of child life. 
There appears to be a peculiar fitness of early history 
stories to children's minds at the age of ten or eleven. 

What portion of our history is best suited to begin- 
ners ? We think that simple, thrilling biographies of 
early pioneer life are best calculated to awaken the 
interest of younger children. They are plain and 



HISTORY IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 39 

primitive, and withal so energetic and spirited that 
they correspond to a child's physical and mental 
moods. Their heroism brings out those marks of 
prowess and courage, which children so much admire. 
They are, in the main, free from the complexities and 
entanglements of great wars, and of later political and 
social institutions. The elements of personal char- 
acter find for children a clear and full expression, and 
the simple experiences of pioneer struggle and danger 
make an indelible mark upon them. 

In order to secure stories which are adapted to 
children of this age, certain limits in their selection 
must be observed. First, they should be biographi- 
cal stories, to secure simplicity and interest, and they 
should exhibit the lives of men of high character and 
purpose, such as impress the mind with generous 
thoughts. Secondly, the conditions of society should 
be simple and primitive, easily surveyed and compre- 
hended. This condition excludes stories from the 
period of the Revolution and of the Civil War, unless 
they lie apart from the main struggle, and have a dis- 
tinct pioneer character of their own. Not that 
stories taken from the midst of the Revolution or of 
the Civil War are less interesting and valuable, but 
they should come later to illustrate the spirit and 
temper of those times. The whole situation of a 
story, its geography, and historical setting, should be 
made transparent to the minds of children, and it is 
impossible for them to understand the complex move- 



40 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

ments of armies in a great national struggle, much 
less the state of government, legislation, and finance 
inseparably connected therewith. 

In the main, therefore, these stories must be se- 
lected from the narrow field of exploration and first 
settlement, before society had assumed complex forms, 
while commerce, manner of living, and government 
were still in their simplest beginnings. In any given 
part of the country, as in Massachusetts or California, 
the period of exploration and pioneer life was brief, 
but in the history of the United States, and of North 
America as a whole, it has lasted from the time of 
Columbus down almost to the present. In all its 
stages it has been a period or hardship and danger, 
calling out the most adventurous spirits and putting 
men of large physical and moral calibre under the 
necessity of exhibiting, in bold relief, their individual 
traits. Such men were La Salle, Boone, Penn, 
Clark, and Lincoln. 

No other country has had such a pioneer history, 
such a race of men as the early Friends, the Virgin- 
ians, the Puritans, the French, the Scotch-Irish, push- 
ing westward to subdue and civilize a continent. 
The early history of England, Germany, or Italy 
is hid in myth or savage warfare. The Spanish 
explorers and conquerors of the New World teach us 
mostly lessons of cruelty, rapine, and inordinate love 
of gold. They serve as warning rather than as ex- 
ample. But the best nations of Europe were sifted 



HISTORY IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 4 1 

by persecution in order to find seed fit for the plant- 
ing of those colonies, from which the United States 
derive their traditions. There is scarcely one of our 
states whose early history is not connected with the 
stirring deeds of one or more of these noted pioneers. 
No matter in what part of the country a child may be 
born and reared, he may meet the best spirit of our 
history in the early biographies of his own state. 

Fortunate is that land whose early history is so full 
of profitable lessons, for there is no part of its annals 
that is destined to have such a telling influence upon 
its growing children. If the Romans, by studying 
their ancestral and traditional history, could train 
up such men as Cincinnatus, Regulus, and the Scipios, 
how much more valuable to our children are the 
strong and sinewy examples of Washington, Robert- 
son, Champlain, and Fremont. For moral-educative 
purposes, there is no history so valuable as the biog- 
raphies of our sturdy pioneers. 

We believe that this pioneer epoch is the delightful 
gateway through which the children of our common 
schools are to find entrance to the fields of American 
history. These stories not only interest, instruct, and 
strengthen the moral fibre of children, but they are 
an excellent vantage-ground from which to advance 
into history, geography, and natural science. 

As representative men, the pioneers settled some 
important disputes and laid the groundwork for 
later growth. They gave unmistakable proof of 



42 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

the quality and the strength of the materials that 
went into the first framework of our western states. 
There is scarcely a better way to begin history than 
with the simple rudiments from which our later social 
and political fabric has grown, especially when spirited, 
heroic biography is the medium through which these 
elements are brought home to the hearts and sympa- 
thies of children. 

In departing so widely from usage as to make 
instruction in historical topics a regular part of the 
school work from the fourth grade on, we assume the 
value of historical studies as discussed in Chapter I 
on " The Aim of History Instruction," and in Chap- 
ter II of " General Method." But we now feel called 
upon to justify still further and to emphasize by repe- 
tition this choice of materials from our own history 
for fourth and fifth grades. 

In the first case, does this part of our history fur- 
nish materials that are adapted to the understanding 
and interest of children of this grade ? In accord- 
ance with our previous discussion, heroic biography 
occupies the favored place in the hearts of children 
of this age. It is not the lives of orators, scientists, 
or even of statesmen, but of simple heroes, of men 
who have shown power and skill and goodness in an 
age when men battled single-handed or in small num- 
bers against surrounding dangers. 

So far as the schools are concerned, the fact has 
been too much overlooked that we have in our own 



HISTORY IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 43 

history an heroic epoch of surprising interest. A 
collection of the best pioneer biographies of our 
country, as shown above, is rich in stirring events, in 
deeds of fortitude and nobility which are destined to 
thrill the children with their high worth. Many of 
the best episodes of our history are as yet entirely 
unknown to our children ; for example, the watchful- 
ness and resource of Robertson during the Indian 
troubles about Nashville, and the boldness and 
energy of George Rogers Clark at Kaskaskia and 
Vincennes. These stories fulfil all the require- 
ments of an exacting criticism even when put to 
the test of class-room work with children. These 
stirring, true descriptions of strong men and women, 
of difficult enterprises, are able to awaken the deep 
and permanent interest of children. For they have 
the ring of true metal in them that will pass current 
with all men in all ages. Our history, which is so 
rich in inspiring educative materials, has consisted 
too much, heretofore, in the study of skeleton out- 
lines, in a memorizing of important events and of 
chronological tables. This has often tended to dull 
the interest in history or even to create a distaste 
for it. There is no reason why children in their 
earlier years should not come in contact, not with a 
barren statement of important facts, but with the 
personal deeds of men of energy and virtue. They 
see these men in action and are strongly stimulated 
by their spirit. The pioneer stories approach our 



44 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

history from its most attractive side, presenting im- 
posing pictures. They not only interest for the 
time being, but create an inclination toward the 
study of our leading men and of important events 
in the formative period of our history. 

History stories have been introduced into our 
schools in recent years, but they are often too 
brief and didactic. A good story should claim a 
child's interest from its own inherent merit. By 
beginning early with truthful and appropriate biog- 
raphies, we touch the heart of the child. In the 
regular teaching of history the tendency has been 
overwhelming toward a condensed and abstract 
statement of the great events of our national life. 
There has been much faith in the power of the 
mind to assimilate the generalizations boiled down 
into our brief compendiums of history. Even the 
children's histories, in biographical form, have 
been more anxious to load up with important facts 
than to tell a good story. We have much to learn 
in teaching history to children. It is no more true 
here than in natural science that the mind can 
dispense with concrete, interesting facts, the details 
from which general statements may be later in- 
ferred. By taking history in its simple but strong 
characters we shall gather the best materials and 
insure a strong interest. Andrew D. White, speak- 
ing of the teaching of history at Cornell Univer- 
sity, says : " In general modern history and in 



HISTORY IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 45 

American history, while pains is taken to present 
the framework and connections historically, the 
filling-in is largely biographical. It is believed 
that history is thus more surely made living and 
real, that the development of principles and events 
is more firmly planted into the thinking of students, 
and that the ethical content of events may be 
grasped as it can be in no other way." Professor 
C. K. Adams says of the history course in the 
German gymnasia : " The course is almost exclu- 
sively biographical. Indeed, it is little more than 
a succession of stories told with the especial aim 
of making a deep impression upon the mind of 
the child concerning some of the most important 
of the great characters of history. Such a course, 
continuing for two years at the rate of two lessons 
a week, will be found to have given the pupil con- 
siderable knowledge of a vast number of valuable 
facts. And, best of all, the method by which this 
information has been acquired, so far from taxing 
the strength or wearying the attention of the scholar, 
has been to him a positive source of recreation and 
pleasure." If this biographical material is neces- 
sary in universities and secondary schools, how much 
more in intermediate and grammar grades. 

In the second place, besides securing a strong and 
lasting interest, they are instructive in a double 
sense. The study of pioneer life in these concrete 
forms throws into dark relief the difficulties in a 



46 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

primitive society of overcoming the obstacles in 
nature. In our present condition of society it is 
hard for us to realize what toil and effort have been 
expended in securing our common blessings, e.g. 
roads and bridges, tools and machines, houses and 
schools, and security from violence. Pioneer life 
reveals with great distinctness the intense difficul- 
ties which beset men in the earliest stages of that 
growth upward into our present civilization, when 
the most necessary things, as food, ammunition, 
medicine, and tools, and even salt were very hard 
to obtain. Many of the children, even of the com- 
mon people, have such an easy abundance of all 
good things that they do not dream of the toil 
that these things have cost. With the growth of 
city population and luxury, with hundreds of boys 
and girls whose sole aim is amusement, it is well 
to return, in thought at least, and as far as possible 
in experience, to the simple, primitive hardships of 
our grandparents. 

We desire also to secure an appreciative insight 
into the beginnings of social, economic, and politi- 
cal society. Children cannot understand this in 
its present complexity. Going back, however, to 
a simple social state, they may more easily see the 
chief elements. One of the greatest lessons of 
history is to discover how, out of simple early con- 
ditions, step by step, our present society and govern- 
ment have grown. There is no place where the 



HISTORY IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 47 

simple foundations upon which the Americans have 
built their institutions are seen with such clearness as 
in pioneer life. Professor Frederick J. Turner says : 
" American social development has been continually 
beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial 
rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion 
westward with its new opportunities, its continuous 
touch with the simplicity of primitive society, fur- 
nish the forces dominating American character. The 
true point of view in the history of this nation is not 
the Atlantic coast, it is the great West." . . . "The 
frontier is the line of the most rapid and effective 
Americanization. The wilderness masters the colo- 
nist. It finds him a European in dress, industries, 
tools, modes of travel, and thought. It takes him 
from the railroad car and puts him in the birch canoe. 
It strips off the garments of civilization and arrays 
him in the hunting shirt and moccasin. It puts him 
in the log cabin of the Cherokee and Iroquois and 
runs an Indian palisade around him. Before long 
he has gone to planting Indian corn and ploughing 
with a sharp stick ; he shouts the war-cry and takes 
the scalp in orthodox Indian fashion. In short, at 
the frontier the environment is at first too strong 
for the man. He must accept the conditions which it 
furnishes, or perish, and so he fits himself into the 
clearings and follows the Indian trails. Little by 
little he transforms the wilderness, but the outcome 
is not the old Europe, not simply the development of 



48 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Germanic germs, any more than the first phenome- 
non was a case of reversion to the Germanic 
mark. The fact is, that here is a new product that 
is American." 

While this kind of pioneer history does not aim 
to give us a comprehensive view of the great events 
and movements in our national life, it does present, 
with great distinctness, a few important events that 
have had a formative influence upon all our later 
history, e.g. the efforts of the French to get posses- 
sion of the St. Lawrence and of the Mississippi 
Valley ; later, the conflict between the British and 
the Kentuckians for the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, 
the claims based upon the discoveries and explora- 
tions of the ocean pioneers, Columbus, Raleigh, 
Hudson, etc. Again, the important Indian tribes 
and confederacies are distinctively marked out, and 
their influence upon the trend of settlement. Some 
of the great characters of our annals, about which 
the memory loves to linger, men who stood for 
great and lasting achievements, are not only clearly 
pointed out, but illustrated with sufficient detail to 
give the colors of real life. 

This leads us to our third point. Is the moral 
benefit of a proper teaching of these materials 
clear and positive ? Simply to name a few of the 
men is almost sufficient answer. Columbus, Raleigh, 
La Salle, Penn, Marquette, Washington, Lincoln. 
The deeds and character which these names suggest 



HISTORY IN FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 49 

are what we desire to see emulated among the youth. 
As a means of moral education, the history of 
pioneer life is offered with great confidence. Moral 
impulses and dispositions are cultivated by giving 
the opening mind of the child a chance to admire 
and approve right actions in others. These biogra- 
phies may serve, in short, as a series of object lessons 
in character and morals. In studying the lives of 
men we pass moral judgments, and pass them with 
fervor. The feelings and incentives aroused (espe- 
cially if their daily practical bearings are kept in 
mind) pass over into moral convictions which influence 
our later actions. By a good selection of intrinsically 
valuable history stories, which create a strong per- 
sonal interest, it is possible, under good instruction, 
to exert a direct moral influence in the formation of 
character in pupils. 

Method of Treating History Stories in Fourth 
and Fifth Grades 

Let it be assumed that we have found out what 
parts of American biography and history are best 
suited to instruct and stimulate children in these 
grades. We are to consider next in what manner 
they may get at and appreciate these stories. Would 
it be possible to leave them entirely to the home and 
extra-school occupations of the pupils ? Are they 
likely, without school aid, to find the choicest epi- 



50 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

sodes in our history ; and, having found them, will 
they, unaided, get into the life and spirit of the men 
about whom they read ? Or, again, supposing that 
these materials are furnished to children in supple- 
mentary readers, or even in school histories, to be 
learned and recited, can we count upon the right 
results ? 

First, there are very few books touching American 
biography or history which can be read easily by the 
children of the fourth and fifth grades. Their aver- 
age reading capacity is considerably limited. They 
can understand many things presented to them orally 
which they would appropriate with difficulty in a 
printed form. Their power to think, reason, and 
understand is much greater than their readiness to 
grasp thought from the printed page. It is certainly 
desirable to induce children to read biography and 
history and to cultivate a taste for them as soon as 
they have the ability and inclination. But average 
children do not drink much from this fountain un- 
less they have acquired some taste for its waters. 
The oral treatment of these stories, when the per- 
sonal interest, energy, and skill of the teacher give 
the facts and scenes an almost real and tangible form 
— this oral treatment is the thing and the only thing 
to give a child the best start in historical study. There 
are doubtless a few bright children in every school who 
will browse for themselves if only the suitable books 
are put before them, but even these brighter minds are 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 51 

apt to become slovenly readers if left without train- 
ing in the power to realize and objectify the things 
read. We have in mind, however, not the excep- 
tional few, but the great body of school children, 
and wish to determine what history can do to 
strengthen their characters and stir up vigorous 
thought. 

A story becomes more graphic, interesting, realis- 
tic, in the hands of a good teacher. Not only are 
his descriptions more animated, picturesque, collo- 
quial, adapting themselves to the faces, moods, and 
varied thoughts and suggestions of the pupils, but 
there can be a discussion of causes by pupils and 
teacher, a weighing of probabilities, a use of the 
blackboard for graphic drawing or diagram, a vari- 
ety of homely illustrations, an appeal to the chil- 
dren's previous experience and reading such as is 
impossible in the mere memorizing of a book. 

It is a favorite statement of writers and teachers 
that children must learn to use books. But unless 
books are used with intelligence and spirit no good 
result follows. Thousands of children in our schools 
use almost nothing but books, but after leaving 
school never read books nor care for them. The 
way to learn to use books is to learn to appreciate 
and enjoy the things found in books. The text-book 
has become to a large extent in this country a syno- 
nym for dulness. Many teachers have deceived 
themselves with the belief that even a dull, routine 



52 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

use of text-books would somehow make children 
expert in the use of books. It may be said with 
more truth that only those persons have learned to 
use books who, after once learning to read, have 
broken loose from text-books and have allowed them- 
selves a free range among the books of spirit and 
power. 

No author, however talented or fertile in language, 
can supply what the interest, resource, and skill of a 
good teacher brings to the recitation. Any doubts 
on the part of the pupils can be solved, any miscon- 
ceptions corrected, when the pupils take up the oral 
reproduction of the stories. 

Where geography is involved, maps and sketches 
can be discussed in such a vivid and cause-revealing 
connection as to make the situations and the diffi- 
culties clear to the mind's eye. Where persons and 
scenes are presented, pictures may often greatly 
aid the verbal descriptions. Comparisons with home 
objects, in regard to size or resemblance in form, 
give greater precision, reality, and spirit to the 
thought products. 

In history the oral presentation largely takes the 
place of the object in natural science studies. We 
desire to draw so near to historical persons, scenes, 
or occasions as to stand in their presence, to so exer- 
cise the imagination as to become the eye-witnesses 
of the facts. It is impossible to reproduce history 
except through the imagination. 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 53 

When a person has read a play of Shakespeare 
under the suggestion and stimulus of a thoughtful 
admirer of the great poet, he will read all other 
plays with improved judgment and appreciation. 
When a child has learned how to interpret one his- 
tory story through the aid of an enthusiastic teacher, 
he will read other history stories with better under- 
standing. A course of oral lessons in a series of 
American history episodes and biographies is a 
preparation for a later study of history in a double 
sense. A keen and abiding interest is awakened in 
a few of our stanchest men. A deeper and more 
practical realization of the difficulties and hardships 
of these men and of their physical environment is 
secured. If we are to realize the significance of his- 
tory and of men's conduct as there expressed, we 
must see and feel their dangers, trials, and physical 
limitations. The simple memorizing of facts and 
descriptions from text-books manifestly falls far 
short of true history study. How far a good teacher 
may supplement, criticise, and energize the facts of 
a text-book so as to give them actuality may be 
fairly asked. But even before any text-book is or 
can be used, we may get at the soul of the matter 
through a direct personal presentation of stories by 
the teacher and in the midst of a running fire of ques- 
tions, suggestions, and reasoning at causes which 
both stimulate interest and thought,, and give a 
strong tone of reality to the events discussed. 



54 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 



The Method of Oral Presentation 

We have called for a vivid and realistic presenta- 
tion of a narrative and its setting by the teacher. 

In one sense this is a heavy demand upon teachers, 
and one to which they are not much accustomed 
to respond. Skill, facility, and tact in this line of 
exertion are acquired by most teachers slowly. It 
seems, however, to be a misapprehension to suppose 
that only the gifted few are capable of this kind of 
success. Those who are slow and halting in speech, 
or who have no special gift for story-telling, may be 
eminently successful. In truth, one of the first and 
most important requirements of a teacher in success- 
ful story-telling is to hold his tongue, to check his 
volubility. He must, however, acquire skill in mak- 
ing facts and situations vivid to children. He must 
possess the magic wand which touches their imagina- 
tions so that they construct pictures that approximate 
the distinctness of reality. First, the teacher himself 
must possess feeling and imagination ; he must see 
things with great distinctness and detail, and he must 
find homely phrases, striking or amusing analogies, 
gestures, and facial expression. Graphic sketches 
and outlines on the blackboard must be at his dis- 
posal. He must learn to exercise all his faculties 
with great freedom before a class. He must be 
quick in sympathy and ready to interpret a child's 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 55 

questions or remarks. The previous knowledge of 
children, their home experiences, as well as facts 
remembered from books, must be called out in eluci- 
dation of the topic under discussion. But it is neces- 
sary to use these home materials without allowing 
either teacher or pupils to be drawn aside from the 
main topic. The intelligent judgment and self- 
activity of pupils should be exercised at every turn in 
the story. They are stimulated by questions as to 
facts, causes, probable sequence, reasons. 

A particular kind of preparation for such oral 
lessons, rendered obligatory by the whole character 
of the work, is the clear and definite arrangement of 
the story into a series of topics. It is not sufficient 
to read the story through carefully so as to get a 
clear sequence of events and a memory for the facts. 
The teacher's mind should cast the story into a series 
of unities or topics, each of which has a nucleus or 
centre with a body of related facts which find their 
cause and explanation in this centre. Each topic is 
projected as a unit in the mind of the teacher. It 
should be an essential link in a chain of important 
sequences. In the recitation each topic should be 
mastered before proceeding to what follows. As 
each topic is presented by the teacher and repro- 
duced by the pupil, a brief outline may be kept on 
the board, of the topics discussed, and this outline 
becomes the basis of all reproductions after the 
whole subject has been presented. 



56 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

This power to get at the essential segments or the 
pivotal points in a story is an excellent logical train- 
ing for the teacher. He must see a series of events 
in their essential aspects, in their causal relation, and 
in their relative importance. Such a careful analysis 
of a story into clearly distinct topics calls for a 
thoughtful digestion of the materials, which goes far 
toward a pedagogical mastery of a subject for teach- 
ing purposes. A teacher must learn to be thought- 
ful, logical, and clear-headed. 

But if the teacher has learned to think sensibly 
and to organize his lesson into prominent headings 
which will stand a close logical test, it is clear that 
the children will be trained into logical and rational 
modes of thinking and study. Children will learn to 
do more than simply memorize. They learn to 
estimate and judge the value of the points discussed, 
to discriminate between the important and secondary 
facts, to notice the proper relations and groupings of 
facts. 

This series of topics upon which we have laid such 
stress should be expressed on the blackboard in the 
form of suitable words, phrases, or short sentences. 
After a topic has been fully presented by a teacher, 
it is often well to ask the children for a brief phrase 
which suggests the gist of the matter. Some expres- 
sion furnished by the pupils may serve for the head- 
ing, or it may be modified, to give a more definite 
and exact form. 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 57 



TJie Reproduction by the Pupils 

When the teacher has done his full duty in a 
vigorous and clear presentation of the facts in a 
topic, his next duty lies in devolving the work of 
reproducing a story upon the children. It is for the 
pupils now to show how attentive they have been, 
and how fully they can recall and express the ideas 
already presented. Let the teacher firmly decline to 
do the pupil's part of the work. Let him not pump 
answers from the children. The briefest possible 
questions, or corrections, or checks, or signs of 
approval are all that is needed. Brevity and silence 
are the teacher's chief merits at this stage of the 
work. 

The topic should generally be reproduced more 
than once ; at first, perhaps, by one of the readier 
pupils, and then by two or three others. The 
children's reproductions will show misconceptions 
that must be corrected by other pupils or by the 
teacher. Still further explanations may be given by 
the teacher after the child's work is finished. We 
cannot be satisfied with anything short of a thorough 
appropriation of the facts as at first presented. It 
will pay to stick to one topic till the victory is com- 
plete. The children have no books to study, and if 
they ever get the facts, they must do it now. The 
welding must take place while the iron is hot or it 



58 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

will never be done. Close attention is indispensable 
in this work, and if it can be first secured by the 
teacher in the classroom, its effects will be felt in 
their home and private studies. If children dawdle 
when studying at home, it is partially because they 
are allowed to dawdle during recitations at school. 

One of the incidental advantages that springs from 
oral presentation and reproduction of history stories 
is a straightforward, forcible use of good English. 
But many corrections of faulty words and phrases 
are made necessary. These corrections may be 
made quietly by the teacher without seriously inter- 
rupting the pupil's course of thought. Our primary 
aim, however, is not language drill, but the culture 
that lie: in history. 

After a series of topics has been worked out with 
alternate presentation and reproduction, it is in place 
to call for a full narration of the whole subject by 
one or more pupils. The brief outline on the board 
ought to be sufficient to guide the pupil without ques- 
tions from the instructor. Success in this reproduc- 
tion is a final test of the mastery of the story. The 
topics presented one day, however, should be re- 
viewed the next by the students, and this repe- 
tition continued till the mastery is felt to be 
satisfactory. 

The children should keep a blank-book, such as an 
ordinary composition book, into which the outlines 
developed may be copied by the children once or 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 59 

twice a week. It should be done in ink, with neat- 
ness and care, and these outlines may serve well, 
at the close of the term, for the final review and 
reproduction. 

Difficulties 

There are several difficulties in the way of sat- 
isfactory oral work of the kind described which 
prevent practical teachers from undertaking it : — 

1. In the training of our teachers not much care 
is taken to acquire the ability to present a subject 
well to a class. It is an art difficult to acquire in 
many cases, and not generally regarded as valuable. 
The function of the teacher has been found in assign- 
ing and testing rather than in the presentation of 
knowledge. 

An oral method of teaching is liable to great 
abuses, because it is really a difficult art. But it is 
reasonable for us to raise the question whether a 
teacher, in declining to treat certain subjects orally 
which are best adapted to it, is not consulting his 
convenience and laziness rather than the rules of his 
art. If a teacher does not know a subject well 
enough to present it in a clear and interesting way 
to his class, he does not know it as well as a teacher 
should. He has not thoroughly assimilated it and 
organized it in his own mind. The teacher who is 
called upon to present a lesson to a class will master 



60 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

it in a more effective way than the mere hearer of 
recitations. He will also seek to adapt his facts to 
the minds of the class and to make them clear by 
means of drawings or illustrations and other devices. 
If his own mind is awake and aglow with the ideas 
he is discussing or presenting, the children's thoughts 
will kindle. If it is possible to put such safeguards 
around oral teaching as will keep it from degenerat- 
ing into talk, we shall find it a means of stimulus. 

Clear, vivid, animated presentation of ideas to a 
class, though difficult, is an excellent aim for teachers 
to keep in view, because it will regenerate their 
school activity. There are, of course, a good many 
lessons in arithmetic, grammar, and reading that 
must be learned from text-books. To these our 
remarks apply but indirectly. In geography, history, 
language, and natural science there are lessons in 
plenty that call for oral treatment, where pupil and 
teacher come face to face in the discussion of facts. 

2. Oral teaching calls for close and constant 
attention from all members of a class — a somewhat 
difficult thing to secure. The habit of inattention 
formed in our schools reveals one of the most vul- 
nerable points in our present method. There is a 
striking difference between American and European 
schools of the better sort, in this respect. 

An exclusive text-book method of studying and 
teaching undermines attention in the classroom. 
The strongest attention is required in learning the 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 6 1 

lesson before the recitation, but the class period is 
characterized by general looseness, except for each 
particular child when called up to recite. 

An oral method is based fundamentally upon strict 
attention. The facts must be acquired in the class, 
or not at all. The habits of attention formed in good 
classroom work will also strengthen the children in 
home study and initiate them into the right method 
of attention and study. In reply to all this, it may 
be truly said that a vigorous teacher will secure 
attention whether teaching orally or from a text- 
book. However true this may be, there is a natural 
tendency to laxity in a text-book method, while the 
necessity for close attention is much more apparent 
and is really imperative in an oral presentation and 
treatment. 

3. The growth of self -activity in the children should 
spring directly from oral instruction. But the idea 
that children should do everything for themselves, 
by their own self-activity, has been commonly used 
to support our text-book method and to bring dis- 
credit upon oral teaching. The ridicule heaped upon 
the " pouring in " and " drawing out " process has 
also confirmed us in the belief that our present method 
of learning and reciting from books is, after all, the 
best. 

It is an admitted fact that children in our inter- 
mediate and grammar grades in town schools have 
very little self-reliance or thoughtfulness. They are 



62 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

overwhelmingly inclined to mechanical methods of 
work, memorizing phrases in arithmetic, geography, 
and grammar. After an infinite amount of talking 
about self-reliance and self-activity by teachers, chil- 
dren become neither self-reliant nor self-active. Such 
terms as " self-activity " and " self-reliance " may be 
bandied about among teachers forever, but they will 
not save us from the inherent weaknesses of mechani- 
cal methods in teaching. What we need is more 
energy, spirit, and interest in the subjects, both 
among teachers and pupils. Will good oral teaching 
help us in this respect ? There is some danger that 
our ideal of a teacher will be lowered by constantly 
thinking of him as a drill-master, a hearer of recita- 
tions, a tester of acquired facts. The best thing that 
a teacher can do is to stimulate and arouse. 

The real genesis of self-activity and power to think 
should be found in these oral lessons where the in- 
structor can adapt his explanations and questions to 
the individuals of his class. This is the best place 
to find out what is in a boy, and to bring out all the 
facts of his experience in the search for causes. The 
oral lesson, above all others, is the place to throw a 
child back upon his own resources of thought. But 
this requires expert skill. 

4. It is difficult to get teachers to properly organize 
an oral lesson into topics, to iold in mind a clear, 
logical outline of points, and to make this outline 
the basis for reproductions and later reviews. They 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 63 

forget to fix the chief points or topics as they go. 
They move over the ground, but neglect to stake it 
off as they go, and both teacher and pupils become 
muddled. Without a clear succession of distinct 
topics in oral lessons, the work becomes hazy and 
scattering, and the results must be desultory. Such 
an outline is indispensable if oral lessons are to be 
logical, clear, and of permanent value. 

5. We are often met with the objection that time 
is wanting for such oral recitations in our present 
school programmes. This is true, but programmes 
can be modified. In several studies oral lessons have 
found a recognized place in the school programme, as 
is the case with general lessons, stories in primary 
grades, and elementary science in all grades. In 
these cases the text-book is acknowledged to be 
inadequate. If the same is found true of history 
lessons in intermediate grades, we shall find time for 
oral lessons. Two devices may be used to modify 
our present programmes. As oral recitations require 
more time, let us have but two such lessons a week, 
instead of five, and thus more than double the length 
of the period. Form the school into larger classes, 
combining several smaller classes into one for oral 
history lessons. The general tendency of oral lessons 
is to leave less time for seat-study during school hours, 
but more for close, intent recitation work. 

6. One of the chief difficulties that stands in the 
way of good oral teaching is the lack of materials 



64 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

such as a teacher can use for oral presentation and 
discussion. 

The moment a teacher begins to treat a subject 
orally, he calls for more abundant and detailed mate- 
rials on those topics than our text-books furnish. In 
geography, history, and natural science he goes on 
a skirmish for facts that have more meaning than 
the barren statements in our texts. He needs more 
that is interesting and significant. 

This is true in the history stories. We require 
fuller and more detailed accounts of our leading 
pioneers. Quite a number of books containing his- 
tory stories for children have been published of late, 
but most of them are too meagre. They are too 
much in bondage to the old text-book idea that it 
is a few leading facts that we want instead of pictures 
of men and of the times taken from life, full of 
adventure, spirit, and circumstance. 

These are some of the difficulties and prejudicial 
customs that stand in the way of oral teaching. 

There are other inherent objections that are em- 
phasized by our experience. Oral teaching has been 
looked upon as one of the fads. It is thought to 
have had its day, run its course, and passed away 
with its mistakes. It brought some life and enthusi- 
asm into school work, but was barren of results. It 
wasted time in fruitless discussions. All this was 
only too nearly true, and if oral teaching were now 
introduced among us on a large scale, it would prove 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 65 

but partially satisfactory. The chief difficulty lies in 
the fact that the great majority of teachers are poorly 
equipped for their work. They do not know enough 
of their subject, and their knowledge is not organized 
so as to be brought into presentable shape. A good 
text-book is a godsend to a poorly equipped teacher 
as well as a help to a good one. 

But there is a growing class of teachers who 
believe in their profession and are giving it their best 
energy. Oral teaching offers to such a ladder by 
which they may climb up to higher professional effi- 
ciency and success. 

There is also at present a strong drift toward 
oral teaching in literature, natural science, and 
geography. All experts are now fairly well agreed 
that children cannot get their knowledge of plants, 
animals, and natural phenomena from books. Ob- 
servation, experiment, and oral discussion are the 
only available avenues of approach to the natural 
sciences. In geography, also, the best work in 
third, fourth, and fifth grades is now done in oral 
lessons. Clear and graphic description, oral dis- 
cussion and reproduction of topics, make up the 
essentials of good work. Maps, pictures, and books 
are tributary to this oral work. If these subjects 
are ever properly taught in our schools, it must be 
done in early grades, without text-books, by letting 
teacher and children stand face to face with the 
facts. 



66 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Parallel with the effort to introduce natural science 
and geography in spirited oral work is the effort 
to get our best literature through good story-telling 
into the lower and intermediate grades. First-grade 
children cannot read fables and fairy stories ; they 
must hear them. " Robinson Crusoe " in the second 
grade, and mythical stories in the third, are best 
presented by the living voice of the teacher. There 
is no such vivid way of putting the best classical 
myths and stories before children in the intermediate 
grades as by oral presentation. 

In history, also, a life-giving instruction at the 
threshold of study is just as dependent upon good 
oral presentation as in natural science, geography, 
and literature. Experience abundantly shows that 
to put history books into the hands of children at 
the beginning of history study is a blunt mistake. 
It is the special duty of the teacher to open the 
way to book study by a skilful and interesting oral 
treatment of stories. 

The Solution of Problems in Oral Instruction 

The question how far children can think for them- 
selves, that is, can reason and draw inferences, is 
in part for good oral instruction to answer. It may 
seem strange to suggest that oral instruction in 
history should set up problems to solve. It has 
been so long the custom of history teaching to re- 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 67 

quire merely the memorizing of facts that an inde- 
pendent thought-process or self-activity on the 
learner's part has been lost sight of. The chance 
to solve problems presented in oral history lessons 
opens up an interesting field both for teachers and 
children. History stories are full of problems which 
may stimulate the thinking power, if. got before the 
pupil in their true bearings. Stories of adventure 
and heroic enterprise, such as the pioneer biog- 
raphies, bring the actors into the presence of 
difficulties and dangers which they must have the 
inventive wit to circumvent or master. The story 
of Magellan is a series of problems and difficulties 
which this rare man made into stepping-stones to 
final success. La Salle, in exploring the great lakes 
and the Mississippi, is sometimes called the invincible 
Norman, because he could never be conquered by 
difficulties. The emergencies in which such men 
were placed, and out of which they rescued them- 
selves, furnish choice opportunities to the best oral 
instruction. The story of the journey of the gold 
seekers to California, in 1849, illustrates this. The 
caravan of sixteen wagons, with forty-one men, was 
moving slowly along the Nebraska River. On the 
low hills, two or three miles away, they one day 
saw a great cloud of dust made by a large troop of 
horsemen ; probably Indians on the war path, or out 
for plunder. What should the men and the long 
caravan of sixteen wagons do in this emergency ? 



68 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

At this point the teacher may call a halt and ask 
the children to solve the problem. It requires some 
time and thoughtfulness, and even some blundering 
on the part of the children ; but they will soon work 
it out if left to their own power of thought, as the 
author has discovered on several occasions. 

Later, upon this same journey, the caravan of 
heavily-laden wagons had just succeeded in crossing 
the salt desert west of the Great Salt Lake. One 
evening, worn out with travel, they reached the 
head waters of the Humbolt River, where they found 
a camping place and grass for their animals. While 
the others slept, four men were appointed to guard 
the camp. But, weary with travel, the four men, 
one after another, fell asleep, and a prowling band 
of Snake Indians from the north crept into the 
camp, cut the ropes of the horses and mules and 
drove them all away. Some three or four hours 
later the men awakened and discovered their loss. 
The Indians, on horseback, had a four hours' start. 
Behind the weary travellers, toward the east, lay the 
salt desert, which they had crossed with difficulty. 
To the west the trail stretched away six hundred 
miles to California and the gold mines, without a 
settlement between. The wagons were heavily 
loaded with all their goods. What should the gold- 
seekers do under these circumstances? Leave this 
for the children to decide. At least let them talk 
it over and make their several proposals, some of 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 69 

which may prove ridiculous or impossible. Let 
them study the map if necessary. The more they 
think about it the more they will realize the 
desperate situation in which these men were placed. 
If it were toward the close of the recitation, it 
might be well to leave it, like a problem in arithme- 
tic, for the next lesson. 

In problems of this sort it is evidently the business 
of the teacher to make unmistakably clear to the 
children the conditions, that is, the environing diffi- 
culties which beset the men. The great thing at 
first is to get the facts which lead up to such an 
emergency and to have them clearly imaged in the 
minds of the children. In this connection appears 
the very great advantage of having stories which 
are simple, in which the surrounding conditions can 
be made perfectly clear to their understanding. 
This is a peculiarity of the pioneer history stories 
to a marked degree. This is more so, perhaps, than 
in any other class of stories that could be mentioned. 
The trappings of civilization are removed. The 
simplest conditions of nature must be met. 

A general on the battle-field has to deal with a 
complex situation which a child cannot easily under- 
stand. A statesman in a political or diplomatic 
emergency is dealing with intricate and tangled rela- 
tions which no child can appreciate. But the pio- 
neer heroes were face to face with simple, crude 
situations which a child can grasp. For young chil- 



JO SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

dren, therefore, just beginning history, they are 
strikingly interesting and appropriate. Biographical 
stories taken from later and more complex periods 
of our history, such as those of Hamilton, Jefferson, 
Garfield, and Grant, are not so well suited to younger 
children. They cannot appreciate these men and 
their surroundings. They can solve no problems in 
connection with them unless it be some exploits of 
their boyhood life. Many writers of stories for chil- 
dren have not discriminated between the simple and 
the complex in biography. 

Another advantage in many of these stories 's that 
each has a central aim or purpose, which is con- 
stantly in the mind of the chief actors. This aim 
points the direction in which effort must be ex- 
pended, and any intervening difficulties must be 
overcome. In one of his expeditions into the Rocky 
Mountains and beyond, Fremont, in command of a 
small band of explorers, found himself, about Christ- 
mas time, at the foot of the east slope of the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains. For several reasons he did not 
wish to winter in this barren region, and decided to 
cross the Sierra Nevada into California, in midwinter, 
over a lofty mountain-range, wholly unexplored. 
With this purpose in mind he set out to wrestle with 
the difficulties of deep snows, rugged mountains, and 
freezing weather. The aim set up gave purpose and 
direction to every day's effort. 

In such stories as these the causal sequence be- 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES J\ 

tween the facts is so close that the reasons for each 
action can be clearly seen. It is the logic of neces- 
sity which is here at work and which the children 
are following with intense concern. This also fur- 
nishes the back-bone of good thinking, and the pur- 
pose held in mind is the infallible standard upon 
which each proposed solution can be measured. 
When George Rogers Clark, in Kentucky, decided 
to drive out the English from the northwest, to 
capture Vincennes and Kaskaskia, make friends 
of the Indians, and thus wrest that whole region 
from the control of the English, he had a well-set, 
single purpose in his mind. All his later actions 
consist of a close series of problems which he solved, 
one after another, in working out this purpose. The 
teacher who handles this story orally with fourth or 
fifth grade children, should make these problems the 
wrestling grounds of thought, the very centres of 
interest, so that by the time they get through with 
Clark they will have experienced his hardships and 
triumphed in his success. 

To get such a close causal connection of facts as 
is here implied, the evidence on the main topics of 
the story must be full and circumstantial. No brief 
summary or outline of facts will serve the purpose. 
Like General Grant at Vicksburg, we must settle 
down before these strongholds of thought and fight 
it out, if it takes all summer. In solving historical 
problems it is necessary to see clearly the geographi- 



72 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

cal basis, the physical facts which condition the 
action. This requires a keen play of the imagination 
in imaging the situations. It illustrates the close 
relationship between history and geography or physi- 
cal conditions. In these situations the teacher need 
not be afraid of wasting time upon details. The 
poet and the novelist have the wisdom to see that 
at such junctures as these, full descriptive detail is 
all-important, absolutely indispensable. 

We return now to the question whether children 
can think or not. We are inclined to assert that the 
power to think and to reason out conclusions in the 
case of children depends upon their power to under- 
stand the surrounding circumstances. Even little 
children in the family and in the kindergarten reason 
correctly within the sphere of their positive knowl- 
edge. They often surprise us with their power to 
draw correct conclusions before they can speak 
plainly. One ground why we are prone to deny 
reasoning power to children is because they cannot 
reason about those things upon which grown persons 
reason. The trouble is that children memorize easily, 
and are often required to memorize things which they 
do not understand. Upon these things they can- 
not reason. Not even educated adults could reason 
upon such a basis. But children can reason very 
intelligently about all matters of thoroughly familiar 
and interesting knowledge. The fact is that in the 
family we require of children that they exercise their 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 73 

reason up to the limit of their clear knowledge. Our 
own opinion is that the reasoning power grows and 
keeps pace with the development of the other powers, 
or, at least, much more nearly so than the school- 
master has supposed. Indeed, if things fail to ap- 
peal to a child's reason and good judgment, he fails 
to have an interest in them. 

The effort to reason out situations and results, 
such as we have illustrated in the history stories, 
deepens the interest and causes these stories to take 
a very strong hold upon the mind. Such work takes 
more time, but it gives a much clearer understanding 
and produces a much more lasting effect. Even a 
few stories treated in this way will bring the children 
to the point of understanding what history really is, 
and how it ought to be studied. The mere memoriz- 
ing of the same lessons out of books can never pro- 
duce this result. 

We ask children to solve problems in arithmetic 
where certain facts are given and the child is to put 
them together, and, by a process of reasoning, work 
his way to another fact or conclusion. The arith- 
metic would be worthless, or nearly so, without this 
sort of training in reason. But we have seen that 
suitable history stories for children are just as full of 
problems as an arithmetic, only we have been accus- 
tomed to give the answers instead of the problems. 
In the nature of the case the historical problems have 
much greater intrinsic interest than those of arith- 



74 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

metic. It is now generally admitted that history, 
properly taught, gives a fine cultivation to a very 
profitable kind of reasoning. It is also a kind of 
reasoning along lines of probability, which mathe- 
matics cannot furnish, but which common life daily 
demands. 

A text-book cannot treat history in this way. It can 
simply present the cold facts and leave the student to 
think or not to think, as he chooses. It gives simply 
answers, not problems. The teacher in oral instruc- 
tion must supply this vital deficiency. He must bring 
the child up against problems and allow him a chance 
to think about them seriously. 

The Development Process of Teaching 

If the text-book cannot supply this kind of teach- 
ing, this setting of problems, this thought-struggle 
with difficult situations, the teacher may step in to 
supplement and invigorate the work of the books. 
But this so-called development method will seem to 
many teachers a poor makeshift or even perversion 
of historical teaching, on the ground that the history 
of the past cannot be drawn out of a child's mind. 
History, they say, is a positive body of facts, not 
dependent upon a child's thinking or experiences. 
But in saying that this development process is pecu- 
liarly appropriate to introductory history, there is no 
pretence that the historical facts can be elaborated 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 75 

out of the child's mind. In the example given above 
the facts and conditions surrounding the actor are 
clearly presented by the teacher, and, with these 
things plainly in mind, a child is called upon to show 
how the present emergency is to be met. The aims 
and problems already discussed are of this thought- 
producing character. It is for the teacher to centre 
the thought upon the pivotal question. Good oral 
instruction consists largely in getting the preliminary 
facts before the children, so as to produce thoughtful- 
ness in answering pivotal questions. 

In the midst of the effort to interpret new situa- 
tions, still another phase of development instruction 
of equal importance with that of problem-solving is 
found. It is, namely, the effort to bring the subject 
discussed into the closest contact with the child's pre- 
vious experience. In short, he should be taught to 
utilize, as far as possible, all the resources which his 
life's experiences have accumulated. To keep a child 
constantly at work revising and reorganizing his ex- 
periences as a means of interpreting or assimilating 
new knowledge, is one of the most serious and fruit- 
ful lines of effort open to the teacher. 

It may be said, usually, that a child possesses in his 
accumulated experiences the facts which, if properly 
focused upon the problem, will help him to its inter- 
pretation. The fires which he has kindled on some 
picnic in the woods will help him to picture the camp- 
fires of explorers. The bows and arrows and wooden 



j6 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

guns which he has used in sham or real battles on the 
playground will serve him in good stead for explaining 
greater conflicts. 

But, in many cases he is not made conscious of these 
close connections between his own knowledge and 
the present difficulty. He stands in blank wonder 
or confusion before the topic. The teacher must 
come to the rescue and set up a line of communica- 
tion between a point in his past experience and the 
present emergency. The proper question, perhaps, 
needs to be dropped into his mind, and a flash of 
intelligence like an electric spark is soon evidence 
of the live connection between his past and his 
present. The teacher who is apt in the choice of 
such questions, and who is constantly probing and 
stirring among a child's previous thoughts and doings, 
thus causing him to use independently his store of 
knowledge, is in so far at least a good teacher. No 
better mental habit can ever be established in a child 
than that of falling back upon his own resources in 
emergencies. 

In arithmetic a teacher observes unmistakably that 
a child's failure is his inability to bring to bear upon 
the new problem facts or principles previously mas- 
tered. The teacher must cause the child to recall a 
fact from some table in compound numbers, or the 
previous process of changing fractions to a common 
fractional unit. It is a commonplace experience with 
teachers in arithmetic to find children failing in that 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES JJ 

subject because they do not think clearly the condi- 
tions of a problem as based upon previous knowl- 
edge. In a logical subject like arithmetic this defect 
is very apparent. 

But for the interpretation of historical facts, 
teachers are slow to perceive that children are 
equally dependent upon their previous knowledge. 
They possess great store of interpretative experiences 
in their home life and labors, in their games and 
struggles on the playground, in their observations of 
people, trades, and occupations, in travel and sight- 
seeing, and in all varieties of intercourse by which 
they become acquainted with people, their disposi- 
tions and character. A good teacher will get at 
these events and heartfelt experiences in previous 
child life, will unearth these treasures and put them 
into circulation. In the midst of the struggle of 
thought in the classroom he will drop the pointed 
question which causes a child to show a flash of in- 
telligence and connect up with his past. Many people 
never learn to do this kind of thinking, possibly be- 
cause the schools do so little of it. Some teachers 
may be slow to believe that a child's experiences are 
the materials with which to interpret historical 
events. But any boy or girl accustomed to ride 
horses will put a vivid meaning into Alexander's 
taming of Bucephalus, or Washington mounting his 
mother's favorite colt. The games of boys and girls 
on the playground have made them acquainted with 



yS SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

those who are bold and fearless or timid and cow- 
ardly, with harsh or selfish children or with those 
who are kind and generous. These and other fa- 
miliar classes of people they meet again among the 
actors in history. A boy on the playground often 
needs as much courage as he will ever find use for 
as a man on the battle-field, though he be a profes- 
sional soldier. 

If these things be so, the teacher must be an ex- 
pert in child things, in the lore of childhood days 
and events. Perhaps neither College nor Normal 
School supply this kind of knowledge. It is none 
the less one of the chief requisites of a teacher. 
Each child, family, or neighborhood has also its pe- 
culiar forms of experience, so that a teacher in any 
class needs to be, to some extent, a local, a family, 
or child historian. 

These things give the reason why children learn- 
ing merely from books often memorize without in- 
telligent understanding. For many children it is 
easier to memorize than to think, or to reason out 
results. In fact, children are often not made con- 
scious of their power to interpret new lessons on the 
basis of what they know. Oral instruction in the 
hands of an intelligent teacher has here a fruitful 
field. It is not claimed that teachers who use text- 
books are regardless of this kind of training, but it 
may be truthfully said that text-book work tends 
toward mere memory drill, while oral and develop- 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 79 

merit lessons tend to greater thoughtfulness and self- 
activity. 

Now the stories which children study should be 
those which they can interpret on the basis of ex- 
perience. The simple surroundings of the pioneers 
and of the early historical characters of Europe have 
this objective character. They are easily imaged in 
their relations to one another. Any child who has 
been in the woods and fields, who has noticed streams, 
marshes, thickets, and rough regions of country, who 
has seen nature in storm and sunshine and through- 
out the seasons — such a child possesses in his own 
experience most of the fundamental conditions that 
surround the heroes of early story and pioneer life. 
There is also a distinct advantage in bringing topics 
of present study into comparison with those of 
earlier lessons. This has not been very customary 
in history instruction, but the biographies used in 
the fourth and fifth grades are especially adapted 
to this sort of review. The history stories, as impor- 
tant units of study, have so many points of striking 
resemblance to one another that such comparisons 
are fruitful in results. Children in this way not only 
learn to interpret new stories, but they also get a 
stronger mastery and appreciation of the older famil- 
iar ones. A few examples of such comparisons will 
be presented. 

The personal experiences and character of pioneer 
leaders may be brought side by side, as in the case 



80 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

of Champlain and John Smith. In how many points 
were their experiences alike ? Both were explorers 
passing up great rivers in boats or canoes and making 
maps of new countries. Both cruised also along the 
Atlantic coast, examining in part the same regions. 
Both were in constant dealings with the Indians, as 
friend or enemy. Both suffered the severest hard- 
ships and wounds. Both were governors of little 
settlements, and had to struggle for food and pro- 
tection, and against disease and starvation. Which 
of these men passed through the more trying diffi- 
culties ? The details of the stories will suggest sev- 
eral other interesting likenesses and contrasts. 

A similar comparison may be set up between 
Columbus and Magellan in their great voyages. In 
what ways did they have similar experiences at the 
courts in Portugal and Spain ? Compare Columbus' 
first passage across the Atlantic with Magellan's 
voyage across the Pacific. How do these two voy- 
ages compare as to distance and hardship endured ? 
Which had the greater difficulties in controlling his 
men ? In one respect they both aimed at exactly 
the same result. What was it ? What was the re- 
ward promised to each of them for his service ? 
Which was the greater achievement, the voyage of 
Columbus or the voyage of Magellan ? In making 
such a comparison in the class many other interest- 
ing points of resemblance and difference will be 
called to mind. Maps of the world will have to be 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 8 1 

examined to settle disputed points, and the leading 
facts in the lives of both these men will be brought 
out with greater distinctness. 

Fremont's great exploring trip across the mountains 
to Salt Lake and California may be compared with 
the journey of Lewis and Clark up the Missouri 
River and over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon. 
Compare the passage of Lewis and Clark across 
the high ridge of the Rocky Mountains with the 
passage of Fremont over the Sierra Nevada in winter. 
What was the purpose of each of these expeditions ? 
Compare their experiences with the Indians, and 
their boat journeys on rivers and lakes. What 
parts of their journeys touched the same regions, 
rivers, etc. Compare, on the map, the length 
of these two journeys and the physical difficulties 
overcome. 

A comparison of the early life of Washington in 
Virginia with the early life of Lincoln in Indiana 
and Illinois, will bring out some interesting contrasts 
under somewhat similar conditions of life. 

Compare Cortes' conquest of Mexico with George 
Rogers Clark's campaign in the northwest, for the 
capture of Vincennes and Kaskaskia. How did they 
raise their armies ? In what ways did they treat 
with Indians ? How do they compare in their courage 
and hardihood in meeting and overcoming difficulties ? 
What were the results which sprang from the con- 
quest in both cases, and which were the more impor- 



82 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

taut ? Compare the present population and wealth of 
the northwest with that of Mexico. 

In order to suggest the scope and variety of such 
comparisons, we will mention a few additional ex- 
amples. 

Note the different places and times where attacks 
were made by Indians upon palisaded forts, such 
as Boonesborough, Watauga, Detroit, and others. 
Compare the personal exploits of such men as Robert- 
son, Clark, Smith, Cortes, Washington, Sevier, and 
others. Judge them according to shrewdness and 
presence of mind in danger. Compare the English 
with the French, and with the Spanish explorers and 
settlers. The long canoe voyages on the rivers 
and lakes, by such men as Hennepin, Joliet, Lewis, 
and Clark and La Salle, are interesting topics for com- 
parison. The battles fought, the defeats or victories 
which followed, and the results to which these expedi- 
tions led, may be measured one upon another. Place 
the lives of leading men, or important events, side by 
side to see what common lessons they teach and what 
similar results follow, and one will be astonished at the 
number of striking resemblances and bold contrasts 
brought out. Such comparisons train children into 
valuable habits of thought. They are a perpetual 
test to the memory of previous knowledge. They 
make reviews more instructive than the first acquisi- 
tion of facts. They bring out new and interesting 
points of view, and produce thoughtfulness in judging 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 83 

men and events. Much time is required for this kind 
of work, and not many stories can be treated in this 
way ; but it will pay to do well whatever is attempted, 
even though the stories be few in number. 

During the latter part of the fourth year, children 
should begin to read some of the simpler stories of 
American biography, such as Eggleston's " Stories of 
American Life and Adventure," Johonnot's " Stories 
of our Country," " Pioneers of the Revolution," and 
Hart's " Colonial Children." These are simple 
enough for children of this age. Into such book- 
stories they may put the same realistic interpretation 
which the previous oral treatment has taught them. 
The teacher should be able to supervise such read- 
ings, and thus encourage children to a wider scope 
of knowledge. It is fortunate to have this outlet for 
the superabundant energies of the brighter pupils. 
In their leisure time at home and at school, they may 
profitably read such books. Possibly the teacher 
may find time to talk with them about these read- 
ings. 

Children of the fifth grade, with their increasing 
mastery of books, may greatly enlarge the range of 
this supplementary reading. The thorough oral 
treatment of stories is continued in the fifth grade. 
They should be eye-openers as to the true method 
of thinking and realizing history. There are quite a 
number of excellent story-books of American history 
which bright children of the fifth grade can read 



84 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

and thus strengthen and enlarge their conceptions of 
life in the early heroic period of American history. 
The knowledge thus acquired, in a hearty and whole- 
souled way, will be of great value in the later study 
of history. In such stories as these, children gather 
the basal, elementary facts of history, the concrete 
stuff out of which history is made, and which our 
text-books, on account of lack of space, do not 
contain. 

The use of maps and blackboard sketches in the 
first two years (fourth and fifth grades) should be 
constant. There is surely no way of understanding 
these historical tales without good maps. Both 
teacher and pupils should acquire freedom in sketch- 
ing local or larger maps, and in diagraming situations 
on the blackboard. They serve the double purpose 
of a means to clearer comprehension and of an out- 
ward expression of thought. It is not very difficult 
to get children into the habit of map-making and 
map-interpretation, if only the teacher sketches 
freely. The physical difficulties imposed by rivers, 
deserts, lakes, mountains, forests, and marshes, 
should be made to stand out in the child's thought 
by means of maps, pictures, diagrams, descriptions, 
and comparisons of every sort. We are even willing 
to set free the constructive activities of children to 
reproduce as many of the objects of interest in the 
story as they can find tools and materials to shape. 
This is a natural impulse of children, and has been 



ORAL TREATMENT OF HISTORY STORIES 85 

generally looked upon as a piece of youthful play or 
nonsense ; but we are now beginning to see in it the 
best educative forces of the child actually at work. 
The building of miniature forts, log huts, palisaded 
enclosures, caves, breastworks, canoes, boats, and 
ships, the use of tools, weapons, and instruments, the 
dress and outfit of the explorers, should be brought 
into requisition as far as circumstances permit. The 
things which cannot be made, can be represented in 
collections of pictures and in such drawings as chil- 
dren make. 

Our conclusion is that problem solving and develop- 
ment work are legitimate forms of oral instruction in 
early history study. In order to explain more defi- 
nitely these forms of instruction, the following story 
of George Rogers Clark is rendered in full, and the 
method of treatment is given at some length. A 
somewhat complete series of the early American 
stories is given in the three volumes of " American 
Pioneer History Stories," for these grades. 

George Rogers Clark 

Authorities. — American Commonwealths, " Indiana." Roosevelt, 
" The Winning of the West." 

More than a hundred years ago, Clark, a young 
man from Virginia, who had settled in Kentucky, 
formed the plan of driving the English out of 
Indiana and Illinois, and, by making friends of the 



86 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Indians, of bringing over the whole of this region 
to the side of the Americans. Clark had been among 
the people of Kentucky a year or two, was a skilful 
hunter and woodsman, and had become a bold leader 
of war-parties against the Indians. He was only 
about twenty-five years old, but he decided to under- 
take the raising of an army of Virginians and Ken- 
tuckians, to go in boats down the Ohio, capture 
Vincennes and Kaskaskia from the British, and 
then force the Indians to be friends to the Ameri- 
cans. Clark had no money to hire soldiers or to keep 
up an army, and the men, unless well paid, would 
be unwilling to go into such a dangerous under- 
taking. 

It was during the Revolutionary War, and the 
English, assisted by the Indian tribes, had strong 
forts at Vincennes, in Indiana, at Kaskaskia, Illinois, 
and at Detroit, Michigan. At these places the Ind- 
ians received guns, ammunition, and white leaders, 
and were encouraged by the British to make war upon 
the American people who were settled in Kentucky, 
against men, women, and children. For it was the 
practice of the Indians in attacking the settlers in 
Kentucky, to kill or capture men, women, and chil- 
dren. If they were not tomahawked or scalped, 
they were carried away to the Indian villages north 
of the Ohio River, and made slaves to the Indians. 

Clark decided first to go back over the mountains 
to Virginia to see Patrick Henry and his council. 



THE STORY OF CLARK 87 

Kentucky at this time belonged to Virginia. He 
travelled on horseback through the woods and over 
mountains, starting October 1, 1777. He was a 
month in reaching his home, having travelled 620 
miles through the roughest country. Meeting the 
governor he persuaded him that his proposed plan 
was a good one and was promised help. He was 
given $6000 in paper money, and each man who 
should join his army was promised three hundred 
acres of land. Clark was made a colonel of militia 
and given permission to raise an army of seven 
companies of fifty men each. 

Clark now returned over the mountains toward 
Pittsburg. He was well known along the Monon- 
gahela River, and began to raise recruits for his 
army from the settlers and backwoodsmen of this 
district. At Red Stone Old Fort (Brownsville) on 
the Monongahela, twenty miles above Pittsburg, 
he embarked his men on flat-boats, called "broad- 
horns," and floated down to Pittsburg. Here his 
supply of powder and provisions was put on board. 
A number of hardy settlers and their families joined 
him to form a settlement near the falls of the Ohio. 
At Wheeling more supplies were taken on, and at 
the mouth of the Kanawha a company of recruits 
joined him. With his boats, men, and supplies he 
proceeded to an island just above the falls of the 
Ohio. Here he cleared a place for a palisade and 
blockhouse, and established the settlers with their 



88 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

families. Some additional men joined him here, 
and he spent part of his time drilling his little army. 
The men were not in uniform but wore the hunting 
shirt, leggings, and moccasins of the backwoodsmen. 
They were armed with the long, heavy, flintlock 
rifles, and with hatchets and long knives in their 
belts. Clark felt that the time had now come for 
him to explain to the men his full plan. He called 
them together and told them for the first time that 
he proposed to capture Vincennes and Kaskaskia. 
At this some were frightened and a few from Ten- 
nessee decided to return home, but Clark refused 
to let them go. At night, however, they escaped 
the guard, waded to the Kentucky shore, and took 
to the woods. In the morning Clark sent some of 
his more trusty men after them, but recaptured only 
a few of them. 

With the rest of the men, 153 in number, Clark 
now made ready to set out for the capture of Kas- 
kaskia and Vincennes. He saw that it was a very 
dangerous undertaking, but for that very reason he 
liked it the more. Getting into their boats they 
plunged down over the rapids, and putting the men 
to the oars they hastened night and day till their boats 
reached an island at the mouth of the Tennessee 
River. Landing here, Clark met a small party of 
American hunters who had just lately come from 
Kaskaskia. They told him that the fort was strong 
and in good repair, the soldiers of the garrison well 



THE STORY OF CLARK 89 

trained, and the commander was watching the Missis- 
sippi River for any hostile force that might come up 
to capture the place. The French fur traders and 
boatmen upon the river were on the watch to give 
the commander notice of any war party. 

Clark, however, did not intend to go up the river, 
but to march across the country and to capture the 
fort by surprise. The hunters thought this would 
be possible. They joined him eagerly, and promised 
to guide him by the shortest route to the fort. 
Clark determined to march at once against Kas- 
kaskia. Taking their new allies for guides, the 
little army of less than two hundred men started 
north across the wilderness, scouts being scattered 
well ahead of them, both to kill game and to see 
that their march was not discovered by any strag- 
gling Frenchman or Indian. The first fifty miles 
led through a tangled and pathless forest, the toil 
of travelling being great. They mired in the swamps 
and lost their way. After that, the work was less 
difficult, as they got out among the prairies. But 
on these great level meadows they had to take 
extra care to avoid being seen. Once the chief 
guide lost his way, and the whole party was thrown 
into confusion. Clark was very angry, but in a 
couple of hours the guide found his bearings, and 
led them straight on their course. Clark, with his 
army, moved along so quickly and quietly that no 
one was expecting him. 



90 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

On the evening of the fourth of July they reached 
the river Kaskaskia, within three miles of the town, 
which lay on the further bank. They kept in the 
woods till after it grew dusk and then marched 
silently to the little farm on the hither side. The 
family were taken prisoners, and from them Clark 
learned that some days before the townspeople had 
been alarmed at the rumor of a possible attack, but 
they were now off their guard. There were a great 
many men in the town, mostly French, the Indians 
having for the most part left. The commander had 
two or three times as many men under him as Clark, 
and he would certainly make a good fight, if not 
taken by surprise. It was Clark's boldness and the 
speed of his movements which gave him a chance 
of success, with the odds so heavily against him. 

Getting boats, Clark ferried his men across the 
stream under cover of the darkness and in silence. 
He then approached Kaskaskia in the night, dividing 
his force into two divisions, one being spread out to 
surround the town so that none might escape, while 
he himself led the other up to the walls of the fort. 
Inside the fort the lights were lit, and through the 
windows came the sound of violins. The officers 
of the fort had given a ball, and the mirth-loving 
French, young men and girls, were dancing and 
revelling within, while the sentinels had left their 
posts. One of the captives showed Clark a pos- 
tern gate by the river side, and through this he 



THE STORY OF CLARK 9 1 

entered the fort, having placed his men at the 
entrance. Advancing to the great hall where the 
dance was held, he leaned silently with folded arms 
against the door-post, looking at the dancers. An 
Indian, lying on the floor of the entry, gazed intently 
on the stranger's face as the light from the torches 
within flickered across it, and suddenly sprang to his 
feet, uttering the unearthly warwhoop. Instantly the 
dancing ceased, while the men ran towards the door. 
But Clark, standing unmoved and with unchanged 
face, bade them grimly to go on with their dancing, 
but to remember that they now danced under Virginia 
and not under Great Britain. At the same time his 
men burst into the fort and seized the officers, includ- 
ing the commander, Rocheblanc, who was in bed. 

Immediately Clark had every street secured and 
sent runners through the town, ordering the people 
to keep close to their houses on pain of death. 
Before daybreak he had them all disarmed. The 
French of the town were greatly frightened. The 
unlooked-for and mysterious approach of the back- 
woodsmen, their sudden attack, their wild and 
uncouth appearance, combined to fill the French- 
men with fear. They believed also that the Ken- 
tuckians were harsh and cruel men. Clark did not 
want to injure the French, but wished, rather, to 
make fast friends of them. The next morning he 
called together their chief men from the village and 
told them that he desired in no way to injure, but to 



92 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

treat them as brothers and give them all the rights 
of Americans. The French were so delighted with 
this speech that they passed at once from despair 
to the greatest joy, scattered flowers through the 
streets, sang and danced. The other French settle- 
ments along the river in Illinois heard with pleas- 
ure of this good treatment and became at once the 
firm friends of Clark. The French were Catholics. 
When Gibault, the priest, asked Clark whether the 
Catholic church might be opened, the reply was 
that, as a commander, he had nothing to do with 
the churches except to protect them from insult, 
and that by the laws of the Republic, the Catholic 
church had as great privileges as any other. 

But though he had captured the fort and made 
friends of the French, Clark was still surrounded by 
the most serious dangers. There were many tribes 
of warlike Indians in Illinois, Indiana, and other sur- 
rounding states who had long been bitterly hostile to 
the Kentuckians. Their chiefs and warriors gath- 
ered now from far and near to see what had hap- 
pened at Kaskaskia, and when they saw Clark's little 
army they began to show little respect or fear of 
him. His own army was not only small but, as their 
time of service came to an end, many of them wished 
to return home. His men were naturally indepen- 
dent and wilful, and he had not the means with 
which to hire them for longer service. Virginia was 
hundreds of miles away across the mountains and 



THE STORY OF CLARK 93 

was fully occupied with the war of the Revolution, so 
that Clark could expect no help from that quarter. 
The British at Vincennes and Detroit had much 
larger forces and supplies than Clark, and they had 
the strong support of all the Western tribes of 
Indians. Clark had not attacked Vincennes on his 
way down the Ohio, because he feared it would be 
too strong for him. 

Clark now set himself to the task of overcoming 
these difficulties. 

Everything depended upon his having a brave lit- 
tle army of trained backwoodsmen with which to 
fight if necessary. He had four excellent captains 
and he now persuaded one hundred of his men, by 
gifts and promises, to stay with him eight months 
longer. The others, about fifty in number, he 
allowed to return to their homes. The French now 
learned from Clark that he was about to return to 
the falls of the Ohio and leave Kaskaskia to the 
British. This frightened the French, so that they 
begged him to stay. He finally, and with apparent 
reluctance, decided to remain, but required strong 
promises of support from the French, and enlisted a 
large number of young Frenchmen in his army and 
distributed them among his well-trained backwoods- 
men. He then drilled this new army daily, till they 
became thoroughly trained. In this way he kept 
his army as numerous and strong as at first. 

The British still held a strong fort at Vincennes 



94 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

on the Wabash. Clark now wished to capture this 
place, but did not know how strong it was, nor how 
many British soldiers defended it. The people liv- 
ing in the village near the Vincennes fort were also 
French. 

Clark now told the French at Kaskaskia that he 
was about to march with his little army to destroy 
the fort and village at Vincennes, because they 
belonged to and were friendly to the English. But 
the French at Kaskaskia, who had friends and kins- 
men at Vincennes, begged him not to do so. For if 
he would wait, two of their best men, with other 
Frenchmen, would go to Vincennes and persuade 
the French people of the village to desert the Eng- 
lish. Clark agreed to this and the two men, with 
Gibault, the priest, and others, set out in a boat for 
Vincennes. When they arrived they found only a 
few English soldiers at the fort, and soon persuaded 
the French inhabitants to join Clark. They also 
went to the fort and compelled the men to pull down 
the English, and to put up the American flag. As 
soon as this news reached Clark he appointed Cap- 
tain Helm, one of his best men, and a few French 
volunteers to go to take possession of the fort and 
hold it. 

The Indians along the Wabash were so much 
astonished at the sudden change that they began to 
think of joining Clark. Tabac was an Indian chief 
living on the river below Vincennes. Because his 



THE STORY OF CLARK 95 

tribe controlled the mouth of the river, he was called 
"The Door of the Wabash." Clark sent word to 
him to join the British or the Americans as he 
pleased. After thinking it over a few days, Tabac 
decided to join the " Long Knives " as he called the 
Kentuckians. After this the other tribes along the 
Wabash and around Vincennes were pacified by 
Helm and Clark. 

Clark now took upon himself the greater task of 
dealing with the huge horde of savages, representing 
every tribe between the G^eat Lakes and the Missis- 
sippi, who had come to Illinois, some from a distance 
of five hundred miles. They wished to learn just 
what had happened and to hear for themselves all 
that the " Long Knives " had to say. They gathered 
to meet him at Cahokia (north of Kaskaskia), chiefs 
and warriors of every grade, Ottawas, Chippewas, 
Pottawottomies, Sacs and Foxes, and other tribes. 
The straggling streets of the little town were 
thronged with hundreds of dark-browed, sullen- 
looking savages. They strutted to and fro in their 
dirty finery, or lounged about the houses, inquisitive 
and insolent, hardly concealing their thirst for 
bloodshed and plunder. 

Fortunately, Clark knew exactly how to treat 
them. He was always on his guard, while seem- 
ingly very cool and confident. But on the third 
night a crowd of reckless warriors tried to force a 
way into the house where he was lodging, and to 



96 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

carry him off as a prisoner. Clark had been suspi- 
cious of their purpose and was on the lookout. His 
guards were at hand and promptly seized the sav- 
ages. The townspeople also took the alarm, and 
were in arms in a couple of minutes in favor of 
Clark. He instantly ordered the French militia to 
put the captives, both chiefs and warriors, in irons. 
His boldness was completely successful. The crest- 
fallen prisoners humbly begged his pardon and said 
they were only trying to see whether the French 
were really the friends of Clark. They then desired 
to be released. Up to this time Clark had treated 
the Indians with great kindness, but he now refused 
to grant their request, and treated them with scorn 
and indifference, even when the chiefs of the other 
tribes asked him to let them go free. While the 
whole town was in confusion, Clark seemed wholly 
undisturbed, and did not even shift his lodgings to 
the fort for safety. But he secretly filled a large 
room next to his own with armed men, and the 
guards were kept ready for instant action. To make 
his pretended indifference more complete, he assem- 
bled a company of ladies and gentlemen who danced 
nearly the whole night. The savages were much 
perplexed, and held several councils among them- 
selves during the night. 

" Next morning Clark called all the tribes to a 
grand council. He then released the captive chiefs, 
that he might speak to them in the presence of their 



THE STORY OF CLARK 97 

friends and allies. After all the ceremonies of 
Indian etiquette had been finished, Clark stood up in 
the ring of squatted warriors, while his riflemen, in 
travel-worn hunting-shirts, clustered behind him. 
Taking the bloody war belt of wampum, he handed 
it to the chiefs whom he had taken captive, telling 
the assembled tribes that he cared neither for their 
treachery nor enmity. He had a right to put them 
to death, but instead of this he would escort them 
outside the town, and after three days begin war 
upon them. Pointing to the war belt, he challenged 
them to see which could make it the more bloody. 
Now that he had finished talking to them he wished 
them to depart at once." All the Indian chiefs, 
including the prisoners, replied in turn that they 
wished for peace and were sorry that they had ever 
sided against him. 

" Clark then rose again and told them that he 
came not as a counsellor, but as a warrior ; not beg- 
ging for peace, but carrying in his right hand, peace, 
in his left hand, war. To those who were friendly 
he would be a friend, but if they chose war, he would 
call from the thirteen council fires (thirteen colonies), 
warriors so numerous that they would darken the land. 
At the end of his speech he offered them the two 
belts of war and peace. They eagerly took the peace 
belt. But Clark declined to smoke the calumet 
(peace pipe) or to release all his prisoners, and in- 
sisted that two of them should be put to death. 



98 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

The Indians even consented to this, and two of 
their young men were surrendered to him. Advanc- 
ing they sat down before him on the floor, covering 
their heads with blankets to receive the tomahawk. 
Then Clark at the last granted them full pardon 
and peace, and forgave the young men their doom. 
The next day after a peace council there was a feast, 
and the friendship of the Indians was fully won. 
Clark ever after had great influence with them. 
They admired his personal prowess, his oratory, his 
address as a treaty maker, and the skill with which 
he led his troops. Long afterwards, when the 
United States authorities were trying to make trea- 
ties with the Indians, it was noticed that the latter 
never would speak to any other white general while 
Clark was present." 

Clark had now settled his affairs with the Indians, 
but a still greater difficulty awaited him. General 
Hamilton, the English commander at Detroit, knew 
well how small Clark's army was. He was a man of 
great energy, and immediately began to prepare an 
expedition to recapture Vincennes and drive Clark 
out of Illinois. French spies and agents were sent 
out by the English at Detroit, to stir up the Indians 
in Illinois, Indiana, and the northwest. Hamilton 
himself was to command the main army against Vin- 
cennes. "Throughout September every soul in 
Detroit was busy from morning till night mending 
boats, baking biscuits, packing provisions in kegs 



THE STORY OF CLARK 



99 



and bags, collecting artillery stores, and in every 
way preparing for the expedition. Fifteen large 
boats were procured, each able to carry from one 
thousand to three thousand pounds. These were to 
be loaded with ammunition, food, clothing, tents, and 
especially with presents for the Indians. Cattle and 
wheels were sent ahead to the most important portages 
on the route. A six-pound gun was also forwarded." 
Before starting, feasts were given to the Indian 
tribes, at which oxen were roasted whole (barbecue), 
while Hamilton and the chiefs of the French sang 
the war song in solemn council, and received the 
pledges of armed assistance and support from the 
savages. 

On October 7 the expedition left Detroit. Hamil- 
ton started with 177 whites (British regulars, Cana- 
dian French, and Detroit militia) and 60 Indians. 
About 260 Indians joined him on the way, so that 
upon reaching Vincennes his army was 500 strong. 
In sailing the boats across Lake Erie to reach the 
mouth of the Maumee River, they were overtaken by 
darkness and a strong gale and were almost swamped. 
The waters of the Maumee were low and the boats 
were poled slowly up against the current, reaching 
the portage, where there was an Indian village, Octo- 
ber 24. Here a nine-miles portage was made to one 
of the sources of the Wabash. This stream was so 
low that the boats could not have gone down it, had 
it not been for the beaver dam, four miles below 



LcfC. 



IOO SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

the landing place, which backed up the current. 
" A passage was cut through the beaver dam to 
let the boats through. The traders and Indians 
thoroughly appreciated the help given them at this 
difficult point by the beavers (for Hamilton was fol- 
lowing the regular route of traders, hunters, and 
war parties), and none of the beavers of this dam 
were killed or molested. They were left to repair 
the dam, which they always speedily did whenever 
it was damaged." 

The Wabash was shallow in many places, and 
swampy in others. Frost set in and the ice cut the 
men as they hauled the boats over the shoals. The 
boats often needed to be beached and calked, while 
both whites and Indians had to help carry the loads 
round the shallow places. At every Indian village 
it was necessary to stop, hold a conference, and give 
presents. At one of these villages the Wabash chiefs, 
who had made peace with Clark, came and joined 
Hamilton. Some of Helm's scouts from Fort Vin- 
cennes were also captured. War parties were sent out 
to surround Vincennes and to cut off any messengers 
that might be sent to Clark or to Kentucky. When 
Hamilton finally reached Vincennes, all the French 
deserted Clark and joined the English, so that Helm 
was left with only two or three Americans, and they 
were forced to surrender. 

Hamilton's spies now brought him word that 
Clark had but no men in Illinois, while Hamilton 



THE STORY OF CLARK 1 01 

had 500. Had he pushed forward at once to attack 
Clark, he might have captured- his force. He did 
not fear that Clark, with such a small body of men, 
would try to recapture Vincennes. He allowed the 
Indians to scatter to their homes for the winter and 
the Detroit militia to return to Detroit. Eighty or 
ninety white soldiers were kept at the fort, and about 
as many Indians. In the spring he expected to begin 
the war again on a large scale with a thousand men, 
and with light cannon with which to batter down the 
stockades. He expected not only to defeat Clark 
in Illinois, but to drive the Americans out of 
Kentucky. 

Clark, on the other hand, could expect no rein- 
forcements from Kentucky or Virginia, nor any 
further aid from the French in Illinois. In the 
spring Hamilton was certain to have an army so 
strong that he could not resist it. For a long time 
Clark could not get exact information of what had 
happened at Vincennes, nor of the condition of 
things there. But at last news came from a French 
friend of Clark who had been at Vincennes. He 
was a trader, named Vigo, from St. Louis. Hav- 
ing gone to Vincennes, he was at first imprisoned by 
Hamilton, but afterwards was released and returned 
to tell Clark the news. He said there were eighty 
white men, besides Indians, with Hamilton in the 
fort, with three pieces of cannon and swivels. There 
was also at the fort plenty of ammunition and pro- 



102 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

visions. It was now the last of January, and early 
in the spring other British soldiers, from Canada, 
besides iooo Indians, would join Hamilton. Clark at 
once decided to march with his 170 men and 
attack Vincennes before spring opened. He first, 
however, sent out a large row-galley with small 
cannon and 40 men. It was to go up the Ohio 
and Wabash and be ready to assist the soldiers 
who were to march across southern Illinois by 
land. 

With this 170 Kentuckians and French he set out 
from Kaskaskia, on the seventh day of February. 
The route by which they had to go was 240 miles in 
length. It lay through a beautiful and well-watered 
country of groves and prairies, but at that season the 
march was one of hardships and fatigue. There were 
no roads, no houses for shelter. There were no paths 
through the prairies and swamps, no bridges over 
swollen streams. The weather had grown mild so 
that at first there was no suffering from the cold, 
but it rained, and the melting ice caused great 
freshets, and all the lowlands and meadows were 
flooded. " Clark's great object was to keep his 
troops in good spirits. Of course he and his officers 
shared every hardship and led in every labor. He 
encouraged the men to hunt game and to feast on 
it like the Indian, each company in turn inviting the 
other to the smoking and plentiful banquet. One 
day they saw a great herd of buffaloes and killed 



THE STORY OF CLARK 



103 



many. They had no tents, but at nightfall they 
kindled large camp-fires and spent the evening mer- 
rily around the piles of blazing logs, in hunter fash- 
ion, feasting on beans, ham, and buffalo hump, elk 
saddle, venison haunch, and the breast of the wild 
turkey, some singing of the chase and of war, others 
dancing after the manner of the French trappers 
and wood-runners. Thus they marched hard but 
gleefully and in good spirits until, after a week, they 
came to the drowned lands of the Little Wabash. 
The channels of its two branches were a league 
apart, but the flood was so high that they now 
formed one great river five miles wide, the overflow 
of water being three feet deep in the shallowest part 
of the plains between and alongside the main chan- 
nels. Clark instantly started to build a pirogue, or 
boat, out of the trunk of a large tree. Then cross- 
ing over the first channel, he put up a scaffold upon 
the edge of the flooded plain. He ferried his men 
over and brought the baggage across and placed it 
upon the scaffold ; then he swam the pack-horses 
over, loaded them as they stood in the water 
beside the scaffold, and marched his men on." 
They crossed the second channel in the same 
manner. 

The next day they came to a branch of the Wabash 
which was so flooded that they could not cross. 
Having found a dry place to camp, they waited till 
morning and marched down to where this branch 



104 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

joined the Wabash. They were now ten miles from 
Vincennes, seven of them being the valley of the 
Wabash, covered to a depth of three or more feet 
with water. They were entirely out of provisions, 
and the boat was not expected for several days. Four 
men were sent out to see if they could not find boats 
opposite Vincennes, but they could not get to the 
Wabash. Rafts were then made and four other men 
were sent to search for boats, but they found nothing, 
after wading in the water all day and night. One 
little boat was found by another party, and two men 
were sent with it to search for the big boat that was 
coming up the river. For two days now, the men 
had been working hard, with nothing to eat, and the 
Frenchmen began to talk of going home. To keep 
the men busy, Clark set them to work making canoes 
on the bank. At noon they saw a party of French- 
men from Vincennes coming down the river in a boat, 
and called to them. They came ashore, told Clark 
that Hamilton knew nothing of the little army, and 
that the French people at the village were friendly to 
Clark. They said, also, there were two canoes adrift 
on the river above. One of these Clark secured. 
This day one of the men killed a deer and brought it 
in, and this gave a bite to eat for each of the 
170 men. 

They now had boats enough to ferry the army 
across the main channel, and they did so the next day, 
and the men walked three miles through the water, 



THE STORY OF CLARK 105 

in places up to their necks. It rained all day and 
they camped on a little hill that night without food. 
The next day they marched three miles further on 
through the water with nothing to eat. That night 
the weather turned cold and the wet clothing of the 
men froze on them. The next morning the men were 
nearly tired out. There were still four miles of 
water to wade through, breast deep. Clark encour- 
aged his men to follow and plunged first into the 
water. It was covered with a thin ice, but the men 
gave a shout and followed him. " Clark's tact and 
resource were never more remarkably displayed than 
here. As he had managed the Indians, so now he 
knew just how to manage the Creoles. He laughed 
at the hardships ; he played the buffoon, blacking his 
face and breaking in upon the disconsolate crowd 
with horse-play. Mounting ' a little antic drummer,' a 
valuable ally with his pranks in the strait, on the 
shoulders of a tall sergeant, the sergeant dashed 
ahead into depths where the little fellow would have 
found no bottom. Meantime the drum rattled on 
merrily, and Clark, striking up a song or a cheer, 
plunged after, making light of everything. But be- 
hind the forced lightness there was a stern hand. 
Twenty-five picked men formed a rear-guard with 
orders to slay any one that faltered." 

At last they reached the edge of the woods where 
they thought the water stopped, but the dry land 
was further on. Some of the men gave out, too weak 



106 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

to walk. The canoes ran back and forth and helped 
the weak to reach land. As they touched the solid 
ground many fell down, hardly able to stand any 
longer. But the day was bright, fire was kindled in 
the woods, their clothes were dried, and, luckier still, 
some squaws and children came along in a boat with 
a quarter of a buffalo, some corn, tallow, and kettles. 
These were captured, and " after eating some broth " 
the men felt better. Warmed, dried, and refreshed, 
they began to jest over the hardships they had just 
passed through. 

But the fort and the village were not yet captured, 
and Clark's little army was so small that if his ene- 
mies knew how few soldiers he had, it would be hard 
to capture the place. Clark decided first to seize the 
French village near the fort, and to make the people 
think his army much larger than it really was. In 
the afternoon he captured a Frenchman who was out 
shooting ducks. This man was sent back to the 
French village with word that Clark with his army 
was about to storm the place, and for all the people 
in the village to keep quiet unless they wished to be 
severely punished. " As the army advanced among 
trees and over ridges, a shrewd ruse made the num- 
ber appear larger than it really was. The little flags, 
given the French recruits at Kaskaskia when they 
enlisted, were paraded as ensigns of companies ; the 
ranks marched and countermarched so as to be 
counted three or four times over; while Clark and 



THE STORY OF CLARK IO7 

his captains, mounted on horses they had seized, 
galloped hither and thither as if ordering a vast 
array." Hamilton knew nothing of Clark's army till 
the village was taken and the Kentuckians began to 
fire on the fort. 

Clark threw up an intrenchment across the road in 
front of the main gate of the fort, and that night the 
British in the fort and the Americans in the town 
kept up a constant firing of guns without doing much 
damage. In the morning, early, Clark demanded the 
surrender of the fort, but Hamilton refused. While 
they were waiting for an answer, Clark's men cooked 
and ate their breakfast, the first complete meal they 
had had for several days. Then the firing began 
again. The fort was surrounded on all sides, and not 
a man could show his face or hand without great 
danger. The Americans were fine riflemen, and 
could hit a silver dollar at a distance of one hundred 
yards. They kept behind houses, earthworks, and 
logs near the fort, and kept up such a constant firing 
of guns that several British soldiers were killed. 
The British could not use their cannon because, 
every time a port-hole opened, bullets flew into it 
too fast. 

In the morning Clark sent a summons to Hamilton 
to surrender, suggesting that in case he had to storm 
the fort, he would treat those captured as murderers. 
Hamilton replied that British soldiers would do noth- 
ing dishonorable. The attack upon the fort was then 



108 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

hotly renewed. In the afternoon, Hamilton raised a 
flag of truce, and later met, at the church in the vil- 
lage, Colonel Clark, who upbraided him for his cruelty 
in sending out the savage Indians to massacre men, 
women, and children. While Clark and Hamilton 
were warmly disputing at the church, a scalping party 
of Indians, which had been sent out by Hamilton 
against Kentucky, returned to Vincennes with their 
plunder and scalps. They were captured by Clark's 
men, brought up in sight of the fort, and nine of them 
were killed and their bodies thrown into the river. 
Clark finally drew up conditions which Hamilton 
accepted, and the next morning the British flag was 
hauled down and the fort with its arms and supplies 
turned over to Clark. The British marched out as 
prisoners of war. Hamilton and his officers were 
sent to Virginia as prisoners. The name of the fort 
was changed to Patrick Henry. 

Having heard that a relief force with supplies was 
coming down the Wabash from Detroit, Clark sent 
Captain Helm with more than fifty men to meet them. 
He succeeded in capturing the whole party of more 
than forty men, and $50,000 worth of supplies, which 
were distributed as prize-money among the men. 

The Indian tribes of Illinois and Indiana now came 
to Clark and made peace. From this time on Vin- 
cennes and Kaskaskia remained in the hands of the 
Americans. In the peace of Paris, which closed 
the Revolutionary War, the English acknowledged 



THE STORY OF CLARK IO9 

the right of the thirteen colonies to the great North- 
west which Clark had captured. 

In 1779 Clark returned and settled at the Falls of 
the Ohio. He received a vote of thanks from Vir- 
ginia, and enjoyed an immense respect and popularity 
among the pioneers, French, and western Indians. 

Method of Treatment 

In this story of Clark's conquest of the Northwest 
we will attempt to illustrate the chief phases of 
method in the oral treatment of history stories. 

At the very beginning of the story the purpose of 
Clark in his great undertaking is clearly brought out, 
and this gives unity to all the later details of the 
narrative. 

The following outline is suggested as an example 
of such a clearly defined series of topics as we have 
recommended : — 

1. The aim of Clark. 

2. The warfare with the English and the Indians 

and the situation in Kentucky. 

3. Clark's journey to Virginia and its results. 

4. Recruiting the army along the upper Ohio. 

5. The trip down the Ohio from the Falls to the 

mouth of the Tennessee. 

6. Secret march through southern Illinois and cap- 

ture of Kaskaskia. 

7. His kind treatment of the French. 



110 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

8. The many and serious difficulties surrounding 

Clark. 

9. How he renewed and strengthened his army. 

10. The capture of Vincennes. 

11. Clark's treatment of the Indians at Cahokia. 

12. Hamilton's preparations at Detroit. 

13. Hamilton's journey up the Maumee and down 

the Wabash. 

14. Clark's difficult situation and his plan to meet it. 

15. The march across southern Illinois in February. 

16. Crossing the flooded Wabash. 

17. Clark's approach and capture of the French 

village. 

18. The attack upon the fort and its surrender. 

19. Results of the capture of Vincennes and Kas- 

kaskia. 

20. Comparisons between this and other stories. 

Such a distinct outline as this may serve as a basis 
for a thorough handling of the story in the class- 
room. At the close of the presentation of each topic 
such a brief phrase or title can be placed upon the 
blackboard, and as the class advances through the 
story, a complete, simple outline of the chief steps is 
kept clearly in mind. Such an outline of each story 
should be put by the children into their note-books. 

The importance of good wall maps, and especially 
of blackboard sketches made at first by the teacher, 
is very great. In setting forth the aim of Clark in 



THE STORY OF CLARK III 

the first topic of this story, the teacher, in two min- 
utes, can draw a large sketch on the blackboard, 
including the Ohio River, a part of the Alleghany 
Mountains, and the Northwest, including Kaskaskia, 
Vincennes, and Detroit, which will make the whole sit- 
uation at the beginning of the story very clear. A 
wall map may then be used to show the relation in 
which this blackboard sketch stands to the whole coun- 
try at that time. The children should also be encour- 
aged, in reproducing the story, to draw a similar sketch 
on the blackboard, and to locate the places. Later, in 
several parts of the story, special blackboard sketches 
made by the teacher, while presenting and discuss- 
ing the lesson, are necessary. For example, Clark's 
descent of the river from Brownsville to the Falls ; 
the trip from the Falls to the mouth of the Tennes- 
see, and the secret march across southern Illinois to 
surprise Kaskaskia. Later, Hamilton's expedition 
from Detroit to Vincennes, along the Wabash, and 
Clark's march across southern Illinois, in February, 
against Vincennes. The route of every one of these 
journeys should be made unmistakably clear by ablack- 
board sketch, and the children may be easily encour- 
aged to make similar drawings in their own work. 

The Solution of Problems 

The story of Clark furnishes a large number of 
excellent problems to stimulate the thought of chil- 
dren. We will indicate a few of these. After form 



112 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

ing his purpose, Clark's one great need was an army. 
How is he to secure it ? This question may set the 
children to thinking along the same lines upon which 
Clark had to exercise his wits. But before this 
problem is set for the children they must understand 
the conditions which surrounded the Kentuckians; 
the warlike raids of the British and the Indians in 
Kentucky ; the location of the forts ; the situation of 
Kentucky, separated from Virginia by the broad and 
difficult mountains. Children can do but little think- 
ing here without a clear grasp of the geographical 
situation. With these things in mind they may be 
asked : How can Clark raise an army ? They may 
answer : He will ask the Kentuckians to join him. 
But are the Kentuckians willing to desert their homes 
on a long march into distant regions, leaving their 
families at the mercy of the Indians ? How are the 
men to be paid for their months of absence from the 
home, among dangers, marches, and battles ? Ken- 
tucky at this time belonged to Virginia. Perhaps 
Virginia might help them. In what ways might 
Virginia be of service to Clark in raising an army ? 
Such questions lead up to Clark's journey to Virginia 
and its results. 

Another interesting problem for Clark at Pittsburg 
is this : What sort of an outfit for his army must be 
provided before leaving Pittsburg ? This will bring 
up the matter of boats, provisions, clothing, tools and 
firearms, ammunition, presents for the Indians, medi- 



THE STORY OF CLARK 113 

cines and other things which would be needed in their 
months' travelling and campaigning through these 
new countries. Such a question may lead the chil- 
dren to do some close and serious thinking along the 
same lines upon which Clark was compelled to show 
his forethought and good sense. 

When Clark had reached the mouth of the Ten- 
nessee River with his little army, it was necessary for 
him to solve a difficult problem, namely, how to cap- 
ture a strongly fortified place containing a well- 
drilled army two or three times as large as his own. 
Instead of telling the children just what he did, it 
may be better to ask them what it were best to do 
under the circumstances, and to spend perhaps five 
minutes in considering proposed plans. This will 
lead to a much sharper grasp of the plan which 
Clark adopted and of its advantages. 

After Clark had captured Kaskaskia, and by kind 
treatment had won the friendship of the French, he 
found himself beset with the most serious difficulties. 
Each one of these is a problem demanding solution. 

First, the term of service of his soldiers was about 
up and the men wished to return home, but without 
a strong army Clark could do nothing at all. How 
could he manage to hold his little army together and 
strengthen it ? What promises could he offer the 
men to encourage them to stay with him ? Could he 
get help from any other source ? Possibly the 
French might help him. What about the Indians ? 



114 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Could he expect any other help from Kentucky or 
Virginia ? Then follows the account of what he 
actually did. 

An equally serious problem is expressed by the 
question, How should he manage the Indians ? 
They were growing bold and defiant. They were 
very numerous and had little respect for Clark and 
his small army. How can he command their respect 
and secure their aid against the English ? These 
questions lead to one of the most interesting scenes 
in the story, — Clark in council with the Indian 
chiefs. The boldness, shrewdness, and self-command 
with which Clark solved this problem and brought 
the Indian chiefs to the point when they begged for 
peace and friendship is one of the most remarkable 
acts in American history, and children can appreci- 
ate its meaning. Some famous pictures have been 
painted to illustrate this scene. 

Clark's devices for securing the surrender of Vin- 
cennes are a good illustration of his skill in manage- 
ment. 

Clark's chief problem in the latter part of the 
story is how to defeat Hamilton. Hamilton, on the 
other hand, has the problem of how to circumvent 
Clark, and it will be interesting to inquire how each 
will strive to get the advantage of the other. Clark, 
however, is very remarkable both for the shrewdness 
of his plans and for the desperate boldness with 
which he executes them. When finally Clark 



THE STORY OF CLARK 115 

received news through Vigo of the condition of 
affairs at Vincennes, what plan is it best for him to 
adopt? What are his chances for capturing Vin- 
cennes before spring opens ? What difficulties will 
have to be met? Then follows the march across 
southern Illinois to Vincennes. As the little army, 
destitute of food, is struggling across the flooded low 
lands of the Wabash, how will Clark keep up the 
spirits of his men ? They are in the most desperate 
condition of hunger and cold. How will he encour- 
age the weak and helpless and faint-hearted ? 

As Clark approaches the French village how can 
he make the French in the village and the English 
in the fort think that he has a very strong army ? 

These are a few of. the interesting and important 
problems which Clark had to solve and in which 
children will be greatly interested. In most cases 
they should be allowed the privilege of working out 
these problems in whole or in part. It will give 
them a much keener appreciation of the story, of its 
hardships and bold exploits. It will give the chil- 
dren a chance to think and reason upon subjects 
within the range of their capacity and interest, and 
of estimating better Clark's character. 

The comparison of Clark's exploits with those of 
other leaders in American history may also serve as 
an illustration of the advantages of such compari- 
sons. The story of the early life of Washington, of 
this series of pioneer tales, includes an account of 



Il6 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Braddock's expedition against Fort Duquesne. Let 
Clark's expedition be compared with Braddock's. 
Braddock was supplied at great expense with a 
strong, well-equipped army of British regulars, with 
all the guns, ammunition, and stores of a complete 
baggage-train. Clark had first to gather up a very 
small army, and his supplies were of the most meagre 
sort, no uniforms, no cannon, no baggage train, and at 
first no discipline. Braddock moved slowly because 
he had to build a road for his army, wagons, and 
train. Clark moved swiftly, stopping to build no 
roads. The Indian and French scouts boasted that 
they observed daily from the mountain-sides the slow 
movements of Braddock's army, and were near his 
camp every night. They finally set a trap into 
which his whole army fell and was almost massacred 
by a much inferior force. Clark, on the other hand, 
moved so swiftly and secretly that he was inside the 
fort at Kaskaskia before his enemies knew that he 
had an army or was marching against them. The 
commander of Kaskaskia was captured in bed. 
Clark lost scarcely a man, while Braddock lost his 
army and his own life. Braddock fought against 
forces much inferior to his own in number and 
strength, and lost everything. Clark's enemies were 
much superior to his army in numbers and equip- 
ment, and yet he was completely victorious and lost 
scarcely a man. What was the chief cause of this 
striking difference ? 



THE STORY OF CLARK II7 

A comparison of Cortes' expedition against Mexico 
with Clark's undertaking has some striking points 
of resemblance which children may discover later 
when they study the story of Cortes. CorteY bold- 
ness in marching with a small army against a rich 
empire is like that of Clark. In the management of 
the Indian tribes so as to secure the aid of the power- 
ful tribe of the Tlascalans, Cortds showed a shrewd- 
ness like that of Clark. Which of these leaders had 
greater difficulties to surmount ? Cortes had vast 
numbers of enemies to deal with, but Clark not only 
had against him superior numbers, but the western 
Indian tribes were excellent fighters, and the English 
troops were quite equal in training and courage to his 
own men. 

Which of these men was engaged in the more des- 
perate adventures ? The retreat of the Spaniards 
from the city of Mexico was a fearful struggle, such 
as Clark did not have to encounter ; but if Clark had 
not been the most fearless of men he would certainly 
have been scalped with all his men by the Indians, 
while the hardships of Clark's men in crossing the 
drowned valley of the Wabash have scarcely been 
equalled. Which of these men was the more skilful 
in recruiting his army ? In this respect they were 
very much alike and were both successful. 

In which case were the results more important, the 
conquest of Mexico by Cortes, or the conquest of the 
Northwest by Clark ? Which of these countries now 



Il8 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

has the greater wealth and population, the northwest- 
ern states captured by Clark, or Mexico ? Compare 
their chief cities in importance. If the English had 
held the Ohio Valley at the close of the Revolution- 
ary War, how large would the United States be now, 
perhaps ? 

After dealing with Wolfe's capture of Quebec, it 
may be well to compare the results of the conquest 
of Canada by the English and Americans with the 
later conquest of the Northwest by Clark. In fact, 
Clark's success was the next great step in preparing 
the way for the growth of the American nation. 
There are several other important events of American 
history which may be brought into fruitful comparison 
with Clark's enterprise. Anthony Wayne's capture 
of Stony Point, and his later expedition against the 
Indians of Ohio and Indiana and the battle of Fallen 
Timber may be compared to advantage with the cam- 
paign of Clark. 

In his personal deeds there are some striking 
points of resemblance between him and La Salle in 
council with the Indians, also Champlain and Fron- 
tenac in their dealings with the Iroquois. 

It is well then to keep the children alert in the 
direction of comparing men and events. It teaches 
them to bring their previous studies into constant 
review, to discover interesting resemblances and con- 
trasts, and to bring into a closer relationship events 
which teach the same lesson. 



CHAPTER IV 

SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 

That part of American history which is proposed 
for treatment in sixth grade includes the early settle- 
ments, the growth of the colonies, and the French 
and Indian wars up to the outbreak of the Revolu- 
tion. Children at this age are not philosophers, nor 
are they interested in abstract questions of govern- 
ment and social order, but in all the lively, pictur- 
esque, and adventurous phases of life. 

This period, as a whole, is well adapted in its 
materials to instruct children because it is so simple 
and primitive in all its surroundings, occupations, 
social amusements, and politics. Even in the later 
period there are no large cities. By far the greater 
part of the people lived on farms or scattered estates. 
Modes of travel by boat or on horseback, methods of 
government and trade, were of a rude character, 
adapted to the simplest necessities. 

But in contrast with the two preceding years, we 
now take up the chronological, consecutive develop- 
ment of the colonies, including in one movement the 
varied and complex elements of progress. Pupils 

119 



120 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

begin to trace the causes and results of historical 
events. This brings us to the consideration of one 
of the most difficult problems in teaching and even 
in writing history, namely, how to carry along simul- 
taneously the main threads of historical action and to 
maintain a comprehensive grasp of the complex 
forces at work. In nearly all of our text-books we 
have brief summaries or comprehensive statements 
giving an epitome of leading events in each period ; 
but it is a miscellaneous and incoherent body of facts 
which is thus collected. It is not suitable material of 
instruction for children. 

In Spencer's " Aims and Practice of Teaching " 
Prof. J. E. Lloyd, while discussing the methods of 
teaching in history, says : — 

" I take the epitome method first, as the most 
widely prevalent, at any rate in secondary schools, 
and undoubtedly the worst. It consists in placing in 
the hands of the pupil one of those cunningly de- 
vised summaries of all English history, thickly sea- 
soned with dates and tables, in which an amazing 
amount of information is compressed within the nar- 
rowest limits, and then expecting the hapless youth 
or maiden to commit assigned portions to memory. 
I well remember the surprise which a pupil of mine, 
newly arrived at college from a school where this 
was the plan, expressed on getting, in a history exam- 
ination paper, questions which involved a certain 
amount of thinking ; ' I thought,' was the nai've 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 121 

remark, 'we should have been asked to write out a 
reign.' Indeed, I have a lively recollection of the 
compendium to which I devoted many hours of my 
own school days, the most compendious and syste- 
matic of its kind, a history with all the life crushed 
out of it. Such books resemble nothing so much 
as the pemmican of American hunters — they are 
exceedingly compact, but at the same time a highly 
unpalatable form of intellectual sustenance. No one 
who has followed me in the account I have tried to 
give of the function of history will need to be told 
that the epitome system is radically vicious. There 
is a well-known maxim in education — 'the concise 
is the opposite of the elementary,' and in no field of 
study is this truer than in history. The compiler 
who rigidly strips his narrative of all ornamental and 
illustrative detail may suppose he is giving the pupil 
the very pith and marrow of history : he is, in fact, 
robbing the story not only of all its interest, but of 
all its value. For history is only worth studying in 
so far as it vivifies the past, lights up the dim spaces 
of the bygone world and fills them with figures which 
move and feel and live. That Henry VIII was six 
times wedded is of small importance to us, even 
though we know the names and the parentage of the 
ladies : what is vital is that we should have a clear 
conception what manner of man he was." 

If such a system of epitomizing and thus squeez- 
ing the life out of history is to be rejected in second- 



122 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

ary schools, still more does it deserve to be utterly 
excluded fron the more elementary classes of the 
common school. Instead of such an epitome we are 
in pressing need of a carefully selected series of 
suitable topics for children for a Course of Study in 
history. In the chapter on the Course of Study we 
have attempted to make such a selection. Such 
topics when once chosen should receive a full, fruit- 
ful, and instructive treatment. 

In studying the colonial period of American his- 
tory in sixth grade, as outlined in the course of study, 
it is a question whether we are not entering upon 
some subjects too difficult for sixth-grade pupils. 
The charters granted by European states, the 
royal prerogatives ; the taxing power of Parlia- 
ment, navigation laws, the gradual growth of rep- 
resentative governing bodies in the colonies and 
the religious disputes will seem to many too diffi- 
cult for children of this grade. Against these 
objections we may place the following consider- 
ations : — 

i. In the earliest settlement of colonies we have 
the simplest possible economic, social, and govern- 
mental conditions. The origins of no European 
state can be traced back to such simple, well-known 
conditions as those of Plymouth, Jamestown, and 
other colonies. Life was rude and plain, and every- 
thing sprang from the simplest beginnings. Even 
the religious life, inherited through centuries from 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 23 

Europe, was simple and direct in its manifestations 
and results. 

2. The beginnings of government and the simple 
transition from pure democracy to a representative 
system can be seen as nowhere else. The powerful 
tendency toward self-government through colonial 
assemblies, and in opposition to the tyranny of royal 
governors, can be easily understood. 

3. The spirit and occupations of the people in 
fishing, agriculture, lumbering, and ship-building are 
such as children can understand. 

4. The dramatic incidents of Indian war and reli- 
gious persecution present no special difficulty. 

5. Colonial history should be treated largely as a 
series of colonial biographies. Interest should centre 
in such men as William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, 
Miles Standish, John Winthrop, Roger Williams, 
Eliot, Davenport, Andros, Berkeley, Bacon, Wash- 
ington, Montcalm, and others. A few leading biog- 
raphies in each colony treated with interesting 
fulness will serve as strong types to bring out the 
aims and character of the people. 

6. During the colonial period we are collecting 
data in matters of government and social history, 
whose general and deeper meaning will be better 
seen when we come to survey the causes of the 
Revolution in the seventh grade. When we reach 
this point, about the middle of the seventh grade, we 
can well afford to go back and trace up in succession 



124 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

the steps in the development of free government in 
the colonies. This will be preceded also in the 
seventh grade by a study ■ of the Puritan revolution 
in England. 

The big units in the colonial period should be 
selected with much care and each should be pre- 
sented in a large, comprehensive, and luminous de- 
scription. We purpose a full, rich treatment of each 
of the four principal colonies, thus finding plenty of 
time for descriptions and biographical detail. A 
strong, Macaulay-like description of a few striking 
episodes in the leading colonies will produce a much 
keener interest and a stronger insight into our early 
history than the foolish effort to stretch our drag-net 
over all the colonies and gather in every important 
event. We must experience the lives and struggles 
of the colonists in the midst of sickness, danger, and 
rough hardship, in the severe straits of famine and 
Indian outrage, or governmental restraint and cruelty, 
so as to feel as they felt, and to appreciate their im- 
pulses and surroundings. As each settlement grows 
into the proportions of a state, and its population 
spreads over a larger territory, with increasing com- 
plexity of interests, the careful selection of a few 
prominent topics requires still greater wisdom and 
leads to the most important results in teaching. 

In the fourth and fifth grade biographies have 
formed the natural units of instruction, and in the 
sixth grade also some of these biographies should be 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 125 

given a very prominent place. Other large topics 
are furnished by the life of the common people, such 
as the family customs, the religious habits, and their 
system of labor. The plan of government as it 
developed itself in each colony is always an impor- 
tant topic. A few of the chief campaigns, especially 
of the French and Indian War, may be selected as 
units of study. 

First in regard to the use of the biographies. The 
lives of John Winthrop in Boston, of Roger Williams 
and William Penn, are worthy of a descriptive treat- 
ment as a means of graphic and almost dramatic pres- 
entation of colonial happenings. The spirit of these 
men, and of the colonies which they led, can never 
be understood by children from short, condensed 
sketches. It is the full account of the deeds, pur- 
poses, and trials which can make history real. Later 
on, the lives of Sir Henry Vane, Cotton Mather, 
Governor Berkeley, Sir Edmund Andros, and Benja- 
min Franklin deserve the same sort of narrative and 
descriptive account. 

A somewhat complete story of the life of Benjamin 
Franklin may accompany the latter part of this 
epoch. Much of his autobiography would serve 
this purpose. As a public man, and in his personal 
affairs even, his life is of importance to Pennsylvania 
and Massachusetts and, as a colonial agent, to nearly 
all the colonies. As a statesman he was wide awake 
to public interests and led the way to a closer union 



126 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

of all the colonies. He was deeply interested in 
practical schemes for improving the conditions of 
life, inventing stoves and street lamps, encouraging 
schools and the popular spread of knowledge. He 
was plain, temperate, and frugal in his style of living, 
and in very many respects the story of his life is suit- 
able for children to study. His plain sense and 
humor, his economy and simplicity, his energy and 
public spirit are excellent, and arouse children to self- 
improvement and knowledge. Many parts of his 
autobiography may be read by sixth-grade children 
and discussed by the teacher in the class. Passages 
also from " Poor Richard's Almanac " are quaint and 
noteworthy. His own descriptions of journeys, 
friends and acquaintances, both in the colonies and 
in England, and his modes of self-improvement are 
of great educative value. 

Other representative leaders in colonial history 
may furnish a spirited introduction to the vigorous 
young life of these early American communities. 
Children of this grade are not yet old enough to 
understand or interest themselves much in the devel- 
opment of purely political and social organiza- 
tions. It is well to keep to the shady, inviting bio- 
graphical walks where personal actions and interests 
serve to illustrate the life of communities. It is 
safer to let the panorama of history unroll itself 
in a few great typical persons, with occasional 
strong glimpses of the underlying forces which 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 27 

are formulating themselves into the institutions of 
freedom. 

In working up to a clear view of the political and 
other ideas that were hammered out into consistency 
and strength during the colonial period, we should 
keep in sight a strong foreground of dramatic inci- 
dent and of biographical detail. These furnish the 
concrete materials behind which children can detect 
and trace up the moving causes. It is easier to 
approach large political and social affairs through the 
lives of individuals than to generalize about institu- 
tions and modes of life. The lives of such men as 
Bradford, Standish, Stuyvesant, Oglethorpe, King 
Philip, Otis, Frontenac, Sir William Johnson, Wolfe, 
and Montcalm stand out clearly at important crises 
and exemplify the chief influences at work. 

Leading Topics from the Life of the Common People 

Back of the lives of conspicuous leaders such as 
we have mentioned is the life and struggle of the 
common people. In some if not in all the colonies 
the vigorous, independent folk-life was more power- 
ful in determining the course of events than the 
work of their strongest leaders. Especially in the 
English colonies was this influence of the stout yeo- 
manry manifest. The French and Spanish had 
leaders of a marvellous personal force and energy, 
but the rank and file were not of the nation-building 



128 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

material as compared with the English. In the his- 
tory of the early settlements the strength of charac- 
ter of the common man is strongly in evidence. As 
they put themselves to building houses in the wilder- 
ness, in like manner they raised the framework of 
states and governments. They had a rude struggle 
to find a footing in the simple industries of lumber- 
ing, farming, and fishing along the New England 
coast or in the tide-water region of Virginia. 

Moreover, this life of the common folk presents 
striking phases which are interesting to children. 
We may mention their houses and home life, their 
fireside industries, the gathering of the family about 
the great fireplaces, their sober lives and family 
worship, their antique furniture and dress, and even 
their efforts at Puritan amusements. Their meeting- 
houses and long sermons in cold churches, their 
rigorous Sunday supervision of boys, and their love 
of theology will always stand forth as remarkable 
traits of character. They were Puritans, even to the 
extent of persecution and outlawry of those who did 
not agree with them. 

Other large topics rooted in the life of the com- 
mon people are the different systems of labor in the 
colonies, including the indentured servants, slavery 
and the patroon system, the contrasted modes of 
farming, north and south, the aristocracies of New 
England and Virginia, the toilsome modes of travel 
by water and on land, the backwoods trapping, hunt- 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 29 

ing, and scouting, the adventurous fishing and whal- 
ing voyages, the transactions of town meetings and 
colonial assemblies. Children should come into 
hand-to-hand, close quarters with these people by 
means of fine descriptions, personal narratives, his- 
torical pictures, and eye-witness testimonies, such as 
are now furnished abundantly in the best source 
materials. 

In describing the people in the different colonies 
there is discovered a picturesque variety in manner 
of life, as based upon great differences in language, 
religion, and fatherland. The races which settled 
America were of many strongly contrasted types. 
The mirth-loving French are very sharply contrasted 
with the sober New England Puritans. The Dutch 
greatly disliked the shrewd, inquisitive Yankees. 
The Quakers were a remarkably peculiar people, and 
the gentry of the southern colonies had different tastes 
and sentiments from all the others. The Swedes, 
the Scotch and Irish, and the Germans formed also 
strong contingents, with very pronounced peculiari- 
ties, in several different colonies. The Indians and 
negroes added a still more marked contrast to the 
classes named above. 

Incidentally, the countries of Europe, Africa, and 
America, from which these different races sprung, 
are brought into interesting review. The variety of 
races, creeds, and nationalities among the early set- 
tlers of America gives an astonishing diversity to 



130 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

early American history, for at that time each of these 
diverse classes retained its peculiarities unmodified 
by the others. In the treatment of each colonial 
type a very interesting and vivid picture of racial 
character and customs, very attractive to children, 
may be drawn, and later on the comparing and con- 
trasting of these classes with one another will prove 
a lively and intelligent source of interest. We have 
hardly been accustomed to enter deeply enough into 
these matters in our school work to get the rich and 
instructive lessons which they contain for the young. 
The failure of our epitomized history text-books to 
bring out these striking race diversities, these pictu- 
resque peculiarities of different peoples in the early 
colonies, shows clearly how they have failed to grasp 
the significant power of the concrete side of history 
instruction. Some writers have claimed that the 
exclusive use of American history in our common 
schools would make children narrow and provincial. 
While we believe that our own histories should be 
much enriched by that of European countries, we 
still hold that these early narratives contain such a 
variety of strong provincialisms that it amounts 
almost to a cosmopolitan breadth. But in order to 
understand these lessons, children must be allowed to 
form brightly colored concrete pictures of the pecul- 
iar modes of life found in the different colonies. 

We have already discussed the importance of 
biography, which is also an excellent means of bring- 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 131 

ing out many details of private life among the people. 
McMaster, and other historians, have set up as their 
paramount aim this vivid description of life among the 
people. By passages from such books, teachers and 
children may refresh their imaginations with full and 
adequate descriptions of the activities, amusements, 
holidays, and family life of the masses. 

A special means of giving greater intensity and 
insight into historical events is the source material. 
This comes directly from eye-witnesses and contem- 
poraries of the events described. Of late it has been 
carefully collected and brought within the reach of 
teachers and school libraries. It is certainly a very 
select means of reviving the history of our fathers 
and giving it a substantial reality. It is now gener- 
ally admitted that these quaint and picturesque de- 
scriptions by eye-witnesses are incomparably strong in 
their power to revive the past. Hart says : " As a 
record, sources are the basis of history, but not mere 
raw material like the herbaria of the botanist, or the 
chemicals of a laboratory, stuffs to be destroyed in 
discovering their nature ; as utterances of men living 
when they were made, they have in them the breath 
of human life ; history is the biology of human con- 
duct. Nobody can settle any historical question 
without an appeal to the sources, or without taking 
into account the character of the actors in history." 
Hart's four volumes of carefully selected and 
arranged sources, touching every important period 



132 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

and topic of our history, give the most striking and 
overwhelming proofs of the value of these source 
materials in vivifying the past. By way of illustra- 
tion a few sentences will be given from Vol. II, p. 65, 
"Pennsylvania, the Poor Man's Paradise." "I must 
say, even the Present Encouragements are very great 
and inviting, for Poor People (both Men and Women) 
of all kinds, can here get three times the Wages for 
their Labour they can in England or Wales. 

" I shall instance in a few, which may serve ; nay, 
and will hold in all the rest. The first was a Black- 
Smith, (my next Neighbour) who himself and one 
Negro Man he had, got Fifty Shillings in one Day, 
by working up a Hundred Pound Weight of Iron, 
which at Six Pence per Pound (and that is the com- 
mon Price in that Country) amounts to that Summ. 

" Before I end this Paragraph, I shall add another 
Reason why Womens Wages are so exorbitant ; they 
are not yet very numerous, which makes them stand 
upon high Terms for their several Services, in 
Sempstering, Washing, Spinning, Knitting, Sewing, 
and all the other parts of their Imployments ; for 
they have for Spinning either Worsted or Linen, 
Two Shillings a Pound, and commonly for Knitting a 
very Course pair of Yarn Stockings, they have half 
a Crown a pair ; moreover they are usually Marry'd 
before they are Twenty Years of Age, and when once 
in that Noose, are for the most part a little uneasie, 
and make their Husbands so too, till they procure 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 33 

them a Maid Servant to bear the burden of the 
Work, as also in some measure to wait on them 
too." 

These source materials are short and simple, very- 
amusing and entertaining to the children, and provide 
just those brilliant side-lights which no text-book or 
single author can supply. Hart says again : " But 
there are two sides to history, the outward events in 
their succession, with which secondary historians 
alone can deal, and the inner spirit which is revealed 
only by the sources. If we could not know both 
things it would be better to know how Mary Dyer 
justified herself for being a Quakeress, than how her 
trial was carried on. The source, therefore, throws an 
inner light upon events ; secondary writers may go 
over them, collate them, compare them, sometimes 
supplement them, but can never supersede them. 

" As for entertainment the narratives of discovery 
are the Arabian Nights of history for their marvels 
and adventures." 

Source materials are not designed to make chil- 
dren scientific investigators and critics of sources, like 
a post-graduate in a University seminary. They 
may, however, accustom a child to consult books 
and authorities outside of his text. The four volumes 
of source material mentioned above consist of simple, 
short selections which both teacher and pupils can 
use without any loss of time upon irrelevant ma- 
terial. 



134 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 



The Chronological and Causal Sequence 

In following out the story of a colony like Penn- 
sylvania or Virginia a child may discover a steady 
growth ; causes which he understands move on to 
definite results. The early conditions in the colonies 
are so simple, so concretely manifest, that he can see 
the inevitableness of certain results, such as the 
peculiar mode of plantation life in Virginia, or the 
small farms, lumbering, and fisheries of New Eng- 
land. Nothing is able to stir up more enthusiasm in 
a class and to throw the children more upon their 
own thinking power than a rich supply of suitable 
facts from which they may search out the causes and 
results of important events. By limiting our study 
to a very few of the salient topics in colonial history 
it is possible to go deeper into those ground-con- 
nections between the facts. An event like the Al- 
bany Congress of 1754 can be fully described, its 
many-sided relations to the colonies and to England 
examined, and Franklin's wisdom in his plan of 
union brought to light. The intelligent tracing out 
of these relations ties up the facts in such a firm 
association that a clear understanding and a retentive 
remembrance are assured. As examples worthy of 
such cause-and-effect study we may mention the navi- 
gation acts and commercial restrictions upon the 
trade of the colonists, the position and influence of 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 35 

the Five Nations in New York, Bacon's Rebellion in 
Virginia, and the final defeat of the French in 1760. 
Not many topics can be handled in such a richly 
instructive manner. As in agriculture, the more in- 
tense the cultivation, the less extensive is the area 
cultivated. There is a wide difference between 
merely naming causes and assuming the impor- 
tance of events on the one side, and tracing up 
causes and finding out why events are important 
on the other. 

The work of the sixth grade is essentially to ob- 
serve the growth of small and weak settlements into 
strong and vigorous commonwealths with waxing 
commercial, economic, and political interests. Espe- 
cially has it been customary to emphasize the politi- 
cal history of these colonies. But government is an 
abstract subject for children in the sixth grade, and 
to be of interest and value to them it must be dealt 
with in a very practical and illustrative manner. In 
New England, beginning with the Pilgrims at Plym- 
outh, it is easy to see how a purely democratic rule 
in the town meeting was natural and appropriate in 
providing for the affairs of common interest. Later, 
as the settlements spread out over the adjacent 
country, a representative body of men was naturally 
selected to consult on public questions, and finally 
the General Court of Massachusetts was the inevi- 
table outgrowth of this representative system. As 
this popular self-government, expressing the will of 



136 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

the people, grew up gradually out of the conditions 
of life it acquired a powerful hold on the people's 
affections. In fact, it was part of their life and the 
very safeguard of their rights. The more their 
royal governors antagonized this direct product of 
the people's will, the more the affections of the latter 
were set upon it. State sovereignty was the strong- 
est political idea. It is well for the children to feel 
keenly the attachment of the Puritan for his New 
England life, town meeting, church, and legislature. 
It is well to measure his confidence in his own local 
government and the causes for it. 

The independent, self-reliant spirit of the Ameri- 
cans in the northern, middle, and southern colonies 
should be seen in its unvarnished strength as prom- 
inently brought out in the dealings with royal gov- 
ernors, with kings and parliaments, as well as in the 
laborious and dangerous work of exploration, settle- 
ment, and Indian conflict. So simple is the environ- 
ment of the early colonies that sixth-grade children, 
we think, in approaching the subject on the line of 
concrete illustration, can appreciate the temper of the 
people, and follow with interest their methods of self- 
government and the educative process by which they 
gradually trained themselves toward freedom and 
independence. The acts and characters of royal 
governors are closely examined, as showing wisdom 
and prudence or tyranny and selfishness. The pre- 
rogatives assumed by royal governors and the rights 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 37 

asserted by the people kept the two parties in almost 
constant conflict, and gave a vigorous schooling in 
practical politics. The persons involved ^md the 
principles at stake in this struggle are in themselves 
very interesting. Such study is an excellent training 
for young Americans because of its direct moral 
example and warning and as a preparation for the 
exercise of political rights in later years. 

In this connection it is of great value to draw illus- 
trations familiar to the children from local, state, and 
national politics of the present time. This is one of 
the best modes of teaching practical civics. The city 
or town council with examples of its law-making 
power, the assessment and collection of local taxes, 
the election of local officers, magistrates, and mem- 
bers of the legislature, should be brought into com- 
parison with similar acts in colonial life. 

As the leading colonies are studied, one after 
another, the comparison of the political life, strug- 
gles, and constitutions of the one under discussion 
with those previously studied is valuable because it 
leads to striking discoveries and conclusions. The 
pronounced differences between royal, charter, and 
proprietary control are noticeable. But in spite of 
the striking differences in the form of government, 
in race, religion, industrial and social life, it is found 
that the colonies developed curiously similar tenden- 
cies toward independent self-government. Every- 
where they showed the same self-reliance, the same 



138 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

sturdy, manly independence, and the same opposition 
to the encroachments of authority. * 

The study of four or five leading colonies, one 
after another, furnishes an uncommonly good test 
of the plan of reviews by comparison. Each of these 
colonies had for many years a distinct, independent 
development. Each was surrounded by a wild wil- 
derness, beset by savages, and each was under the 
necessity of defending and maintaining itself by its 
own self-reliant efforts. A comparison of the vicissi- 
tudes through which the Virginia settlements passed, 
with those of Massachusetts, would bring out a re- 
markable number of striking incidents. At the same 
time, the strong contrast in the labor system, religion, 
form of local government, and social character of the 
colonists lends a special interest and force to these 
comparisons. Each time the history of a colony is 
compared with another, a very thoughtful review is 
made of the affairs of both. But each review of this 
sort has more of new thought and acquisition than of 
mere repetition of the facts learned. For purposes 
of thorough mastery no better plan could be devised 
than such comparative reviews. At the same time 
the dead and formal repetition so often found in the 
review work is reduced to a minimum. 

Moreover, it is a first-class illustration of that in- 
ductive method of teaching, now so much recom- 
mended, by which the concrete individual illustrations 
are steadily gathered, compared, and organized. 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 39 

Every comparison of one colonial history with an- 
other leads to more general conclusions than any 
single history can supply, and by the time we have 
passed over the history of the leading colonies by 
successive comparisons, we have arrived at those 
general conclusions which the history of the colonies 
in America teaches. 

Such a study also brings children into close touch 
with the natural development of American ideas; for 
as the colonies grew and came into closer touch and 
association with one another, they were forced to 
compare themselves with one another, unite their 
interests and combine their forces along the line of 
these very conclusions. The strength of the attach- 
ment which each colony felt for its local institutions 
and form of government was for many years a pow- 
erful obstruction to a closer union of the colonies, 
but a broader sympathy and allegiance was, by the 
force of circumstances, more and more demanded of 
them. Slowly and experimentally they discovered 
the necessity, justice, and wisdom of inter-colonial 
interest and helpfulness. The larger relations of the 
colonies to the Indians, to the French, and to the gov- 
ernment of England, lead up incessantly to the idea 
of political life and patriotism in a broader sense. By 
such comparisons and inductions as we have indicated, 
it is easy to trace the growth of this sentiment through 
the colonial period. 

The natural robust expansion of the colonies made 



140 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

union a necessity, but at certain periods of relaxation 
they seemed to grow sharply antagonistic to each 
other. In all our later epochs these two forces, cen- 
tripetal and centrifugal, have been formative in their 
influence on our politics. Later on, our constitution 
is found to be an instrument to put in balance these 
two powerful tendencies of our history. 

One effect of this scheme of comparisons between 
colonies by which the striking points of resemblance 
and difference are mastered is to make unnecessary 
a second full treatment of the same topics. By this 
plan each succeeding year leads on to new and later 
historical fields. The customary school course in his* 
tory has required the children to pass over the same 
events several times, to review each year the same 
epochs previously studied, enlarging upon them ac- 
cording to the supposed capacity of the children. A 
brief retrospect upon our course as thus far explained 
shows the selection of a few topics each year which 
the children can really appreciate. These are to be 
enriched and vitalized with such concrete illustrations 
as will make them thoroughly interesting and intelli- 
gible. By frequent comparisons with similar topics 
previously studied, more general conclusions involved 
in this subject-matter are inductively worked out by 
children and teacher. In the sixth grade we wish to 
do our duty by the colonial period, so that the chil- 
dren will not need to return a second time to a like 
exhaustive study of the same topics, but may 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY • 141 

pass on to new and important topics in our later 
history. 

There is also, in addition to the comparisons just 
discussed, another important phase of review work 
of the greatest value. Some of the topics later studied 
in seventh and eighth grades have a striking resem- 
blance to those treated in the sixth, and admit of the 
most interesting and profitable comparisons. In fram- 
ing the federal Constitution various examples fur- 
nished by the earlier colonial governments became 
the models for the division into executive, legislative, 
and judicial departments. Some of the campaigns of 
the Revolution are projected along the Hudson and 
Lake Champlain, as in the French and Indian 
wars. The critical period before the adoption of the 
Constitution gives a striking exhibition of the weak- 
nesses which grew out of the colonial conditions pre- 
ceding the Revolution. This comparison of later 
epochs in seventh and eighth grades with those previ- 
ously studied in the sixth grade is seen to be valuable 
in throwing a flood of light upon the meaning of 
events, both earlier and later. 

Of equal value is the tracing back of the causal 
connection of events from our earlier to our later 
history. Almost every important topic treated in 
seventh and eighth grades can be understood only by 
carefully reviewing the foundations of our history in 
colonial times. Slavery struck its roots deep dur- 
ing this early period, and when the Constitution was 



142 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

adopted found full recognition in that instrument 
State sovereignty got such a powerful recognition in 
our federal compact that it did not discover until 
1861 that it was not paramount. But we need not 
multiply illustrations. The powerful causal sequence 
which binds all of our later history to the earlier 
should give to teachers, even in the common schools, 
more than a hint as to the true method of teaching 
our history. A child should be taught to grow up 
with our history, and, by tracing back the chief 
causes, keep in his mind the determining forces which 
shape later events. But that our schools have not 
done this is due to the prevalent conviction that his- 
tory is merely a memorizing of chief events by reiter- 
ation, not by thoughtful connection and sequence, not 
by comparative reviews. 

In all later studies children should be allowed to 
trace back the causes, to return again and again to 
these familiar fields of former study, and to pick up 
the threads of connection between past and present. 
They will thus get new light and sift out a stronger 
meaning from old events. But the main work of each 
year will be centred upon a new, a later theme. It is 
well worth our effort to try to select for each grade 
historical periods which the children can fairly under- 
stand, and to lead them on each succeeding year into 
a new and instructive field, somewhat more complex 
but still within their reasonable grasp. 

The question will again obtrude itself whether 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 43 

children of the sixth grade are capable of the kind of 
study by comparison and causal sequence which we 
have supposed. It was suggested once before that 
children are quite capable of reasoning when they 
possess sufficient concrete knowledge and experi- 
ence, and for this we have persistently provided by 
gathering about each topic abundant material of fact, 
illustration, biography, adventure, and everyday life. 
In our usual modes of teaching we have hardly given 
the children a fair chance to show what reasoning 
power they possess. We have assumed rather that 
they had little or nothing of this reasoning power, 
but that their memories were quick and retentive 
of the brief formulated statements and general con- 
clusions of the text-books. To grasp the meaning 
of these epitomized statements presupposes, however, 
a much greater maturity of understanding in children 
than we have asked, for it assumes their ability to 
understand important conclusions and inferences 
without the data upon which they are based. 

In the later part of the sixth-grade work, in dealing 
with topics of general interest to all the colonies, such 
as the Indian wars, the struggle of European powers 
for supremacy in America, and the closer union 
among the colonies themselves for meeting these 
conditions, we have to do with larger enterprises 
which point the way to those greater developments 
which come thronging upon us in the seventh grade. 
The story of the conflict between France and the 



144 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

English-Americans for control in North America is 
the most dramatic phase of this period. The episode 
of the great struggle between the French and the 
Five Nations is preliminary to this, and of much value 
as exhibiting the Indians at their greatest strength. 
Children of the sixth grade can respond with a lively 
intelligence to the campaigns of the last French and 
Indian War. When Pitt finally assumed control, and 
Wolfe and Montcalm enter upon that energetic 
contest, we have an exhibition of high spirit and 
enterprise on both sides in an inevitable contest 
whose results determined the whole trend of our 
later history. 

All through the studies of the sixth grade the 
intimate and close dependence of our history upon 
that of England and other European lands advises 
us of the necessity of better understanding the pur- 
poses of those countries and the reasons for their 
constant and controlling interference in American 
affairs. It is necessary also to go a little deeper 
into a review of the causes of emigration from those 
countries, the religious persecutions and desire for 
colonial empire which combined in settling America. 

The close dependence of the early settlements and 
of the later colonies upon royal grants and royal 
authority make it advisable to trace back the causes 
of settlement to Europe, and to get as definite notions 
as possible of the peoples and countries from which 
the colonists came. The study of the colonial period 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 45 

should therefore to a considerable degree be a study 
of England, Holland, Sweden, France, Scotland, and 
Ireland, and of the political and religious conditions 
in those countries, at least of those which led directly 
to the emigrations. In our plan the seventh-grade 
geography is devoted to the study of Europe. In 
this work the character, occupations, and govern- 
ments of European states will receive a still more 
definite treatment. Thus geography and history 
may work together. Incidentally we acquire in 
these ways a considerable knowledge of European 
courts, princes, and political policies, and also much 
knowledge of the ideas, customs, and conditions of 
the common people from whose midst the emigrants 
came. 

In studying the last great conflict between the 
French and English for colonial empire, we have 
an excellent opportunity to review broadly the whole 
course of colonial settlement by these two nations, to 
contrast the characters of the French and the English 
in America, and to get a clearer understanding of the 
quality of the English colonists as a whole. This is 
a very good illustration to show how the long series 
of historical facts summarize themselves in a single 
event. In this connection let the teacher read 
Burke's oration on Conciliation with the American 
Colonies, which gives a remarkably lifelike picture 
of the people in the thirteen states. 

In the sixth grade children should begin to acquire 



146 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

ability in using books, in collecting and arranging 
facts on a given topic. Certain books can be put 
into their hands to be studied as texts, others are 
rather to be used as references. The teacher in 
assigning the lesson should give explicit directions 
how to use books of reference. To assign historical 
topics without definite instruction as to books and 
particular parts of books required is a misuse of 
children's time. It is very important to learn how 
to use books, as well as to get their contents. The 
discussion of previously assigned topics in the class 
may be made of such a character as to bring the 
various facts and judgments into proper relation. It 
is here that causal connections should be seen, 
the proper sequence worked out, and the relative 
importance of events judged. There are also many 
places in the sixth grade where the teacher, from a 
fuller knowledge and a riper experience, can afford 
to present a topic in clear and vivid form, closing 
with a restatement of it from the children. 

J. E. Lloyd says : " It is the business of the 
teacher, by his vigorous and individual treatment 
of the subject, to conquer that fatal tendency to 
routine which is the ruin of history teaching. For 
this reason I hold that he should open up each topic 
himself, should introduce the pupil to it, pointing 
out, first its salient features, and afterwards its 
difficulties : the scholar should not be left to plough 
what is for him virgin soil without assistance. The 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 47 

inclination to mechanical work may be with advan- 
tage corrected by teaching through the eye as well 
as the ear : the blackboard should be brought into 
constant requisition for illustrative diagrams : the 
geography incident to the history lesson should be 
elucidated with the aid of wall maps, both flat and 
moulded to represent physical features : photo- 
graphs, prints, coins, and archaeological relics from 
the school museum should be brought into use. 

" But, while much is required of the teacher, it is 
equally necessary that the pupil should not be merely 
receptive. The history lesson should not be, what 
I have known the science lesson to be in some cases, 
an entertainment kindly provided by the teacher, 
which relieved the tedium of severer studies, and 
only asked from the pupil that he should act as 
spectator. There should be much questioning, the 
power of making valid comparisons should be devel- 
oped, and the scholar should be taught to give clear 
and accurate expression to his opinions." 

We are justified at this juncture in insisting upon 
the teacher's deeper knowledge of the colonial 
period. He should have read a number of books 
which the children could not be expected to use. 
The large secondary histories should be in part, at 
least, familiar to him. The biographies of the 
Statesmen's series, the Commonwealth series of 
State histories, Parkman's narratives of the French 
regime, John Fiske's books on colonial history, are 



148 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

exceedingly interesting and inspiring to a teacher. 
They cannot all be read at once, but from time to 
time, and in leisure hours, these intensely interesting 
and valuable books will be found to greatly stimulate 
a teacher without burdening him. The knowledge 
thus acquired is, of course, a reserve fund to be 
drawn upon, here and there, as occasion may re- 
quire ; not a collective mass of learning with which 
to flood the children and waste their time. 

An examination of the American historical litera- 
ture, prescribed in the reading of the sixth grade, 
will show that the regular reading exercises may 
contribute much to the enlargement and enrichment 
of the history studies. " The Courtship of Miles 
Standish," "Grandfather's Chair," "The Gentle 
Boy," "Giles Corey," Hawthorne's "Biographical 
Stories," "The Sketch Book," and the "Autobiog- 
raphy of Franklin " deal directly with colonial life, 
and several of the books of history story do the 
same. This is one of the best illustrations we can 
have of the powerful reenforcement of history 
through classic readings. 

The readings derived from other European coun- 
tries give a still further enlargement to historical 
knowledge. A very large proportion of the history 
that comes to the children of the common school 
must come to them through these supplementary 
and voluntary readings. 

The course of study in history can never be loaded 



SIXTH GRADE IN HISTORY 1 49 

up with any very large amount of required work 
along these historical lines. A few chief topics can 
be treated in an interesting way, and the children 
may be encouraged to use the school library and 
to employ their own leisure hours at home in extend- 
ing and enriching their knowledge of history and 
literature. 

Many of the finest literary products appropriate 
to school children have, fortunately, this marked 
historical interest and character, and the taste for 
this kind of good reading should be the goal of 
the teacher's efforts with many children. The 
selections of historical literature in this course of 
study form only a part of the great body of good 
literature with which children should become ac- 
quainted during their school years. 

The chapters containing the Course of Study and 
the List of Books arranged according to grades 
should be consulted to see how abundant and 
excellent are the historical and classical readings 
which may directly supplement and strengthen the 
classroom work. 

Many children of good capacity and of a natural 
turn toward this class of readings will find in them 
a means of intellectual and social expansion and a 
capital resource for leisure hours. 



CHAPTER V 

HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 

At the beginning of the seventh grade three large 
topics of European history are treated. The first of 
the three terms of the year can be profitably given to 
these topics : The Reformation, the Puritan revolution 
in England, and the French monarchy — large and 
difficult topics to deal with in the seventh grade. 

In dealing with the Reformation there is danger 
of awakening religious controversies. And yet the 
Reformation has powerfully influenced the whole of 
modern history, and especially those parts of it which 
led to the settlement of America. The conflict be- 
tween Luther and Rome, and later between Protes- 
tant and Catholic nations, should be handled in an 
unpartisan manner. The better purposes and ten- 
dencies of both parties to the conflict should be 
emphasized, and the weaknesses on both sides exposed 
with a fair but charitable spirit. The main purpose 
is to get an interesting view of a few men like Luther, 
Leo X, Charles V, Loyola, Gustavus Adolphus, and 
Henry VIII. 

It is quite possible that in many schools the Refor- 
150 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 151 

mation cannot yet be treated as an historical topic, 
in a fair-minded way, and will have to be omitted. 

The Puritan development and revolution in Eng- 
land produced such a profound and determining 
influence in America that it needs to be understood 
by Americans, more perhaps than any other part 
of English history. It may be fairly questioned 
whether seventh-grade children can grasp enough 
of its real meaning to get out of it a culture value. 
But, assuming that they can, it is a very interesting 
problem to inquire how they can best approach it. 
Usually it has been supposed that a few lessons 
should be given to the Puritan revolution as a prepa- 
ration and means of appreciating the great Puritan 
exodus from England to America in the first half of 
the seventeenth century; the chronological and causal 
sequence which is usually followed in history would 
also suggest this order. But it has been often ob- 
served by thinkers that the pedagogical order is the 
reverse of the logical and causal. Instead of study- 
ing English Puritanism as an approach to the better 
understanding of American Puritanism, it may be 
better to begin at home with a study of American 
Puritans as a means of better understanding Eng- 
lish Puritans. In fact, the pedagogical argument 
is very strong in favor of the latter procedure. 
American Puritanism is not only much nearer home 
to an American child, being a very prominent part 
of our own life and history, but it is very much 



152 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

simpler than English Puritanism. It is not difficult 
for a child to understand the life of the Puritans in 
the small settlements at Plymouth and Boston. In 
England the surrounding conditions are tenfold more 
complex. There are kings and lords and parliaments, 
and all sorts of political, social, and religious con- 
troversies. The striking traits of the Puritans stand 
out in the New England settlements with an un- 
mistakable clearness and simplicity dominating the 
whole life. If a person wished to spell out the mean- 
ing of Puritanism in England, he would find the alpha- 
bet of it in New England. This alphabet the children 
have learned in the sixth grade, and have traced out 
further its results in colonial history with its spirit 
of self-government in political and religious affairs. 
With this concrete, and what might be called experi- 
mental, knowledge of Puritanism in America on a 
small scale, the child will be the better qualified to 
interpret the men and forces at work during the 
Puritan revolution in England. 

The same thing is true with regard to the French. 
In the study of French explorers, priests, and settlers 
in Canada and along the Great Lakes, children have a 
much better chance to understand French character 
than they could have by studying French history in 
France itself, with its complexities of government and 
society. French life in America was simple and 
unconstrained, and gave unmistakable proof of its 
natural bent. After studying the French colonists 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 53 

in America, therefore, we can the better appreciate 
the French in their old home. 

For the seventh grade we select in American 
history the period from the close of the last French 
and Indian War to the adoption of the Constitution. 
The twenty-six years from 1763 to 1789 constitute 
an epoch of surprising interest in American history. 
Much time and attention have always been paid to 
the Revolution, but we shall wish to give an equal 
attention to a review of near and remoter causes 
which led up to the Revolution, and to those swift- 
following results which led on to the adoption of the 
Constitution. 

The proper treatment of this period, like that of all 
other important periods of American history, cannot 
be accomplished in a compendious text-book designed 
to cover in one or in two years the whole history of 
our country from the time of Columbus to the present. 
Not even a narrative and biographical history, sup- 
ported by good maps and pictures, though written 
in the best style of a master, can accomplish this 
result in one or two years. To produce the right 
effect, American history should be distributed through 
intermediate and grammar grades so that a child can 
grow up with it. The purpose of this study is not 
fulfilled by gaining a barren mastery of many facts. 
The lessons of life taught by our history should be 
keenly felt. The motives and impulses of men in 
the midst of stirring struggles should be appreciated. 



154 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

The limited period which we have selected for the 
seventh grade has the elements of greatness in it, 
a righteous cause and a mighty spirit of achievement, 
leaders of such integrity, forethought, and spirit as 
the world has scarcely seen excelled. Why should 
we hurry children past these events as an express 
train sweeps by mile-posts and stations. The pas- 
sengers see the landscapes whirl by, and catch the 
name of an occasional station. This is not history 
nor education in any true sense. On the contrary, 
we can afford to stop and live among the people of 
a hundred and thirty years ago, till we know their 
surroundings and catch their spirit. We should sit 
down by them at the fireside or in the camp, hear 
them argue and plead in the courts or the legislature, 
and travel with them on long distances over bad 
roads. 

In two ways we may gain time for the right study 
of this epoch. First by limiting our attention during 
a school year to such a brief period which, however, 
is well suited to instruct and attract seventh-grade 
pupils. Second, by selecting only a few of the more 
important and typical phases and events of even this 
short period for elabofate examination and detailed 
study. 'The whole purpose is to get deep into the 
understanding and spirit of our history rather than 
to spread out superficially over its whole area. We 
shall select a few of the chief movements and cam- 
paigns of the Revolution, and enter into a full narra- 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 55 

tive of the events clustering around these centres. 
The narrative should be enriched with the biographi- 
cal facts and with the scenery which can throw these 
pivotal events into a strong light. In the same way 
two or three of the chief stages leading up to the 
adoption of the Constitution will be travelled over. 
By selecting a few central topics and by gathering 
full descriptive materials upon them, we shall have 
more fruitful results than by memorizing all the 
important and many unimportant events. 

Teachers are a little slow to recognize the advan- 
tage of discussing a few important topics with an 
interesting wealth of detail. John Fiske, in his 
series of books on American history, has given to 
teachers a brilliant illustration of the value of this 
method. Fiske had a remarkable faculty for throw- 
ing the few essential problems of history into prom- 
inence, and for clothing them in the garment of 
attractiveness and power. By focussing his illustra- 
tions and descriptions upon a chosen few ideas and 
events he gave them a powerful and attractive illumi- 
nation. His two works on the American Revolution 
(two volumes) and the " Critical Period of American 
History" (the very period we are now discussing) 
are models of this style of historical presentation. 
They are not thick, cumbersome books, to frighten 
a teacher with, but transparently simple and lumi- 
nous, with interesting illustration of chief topics. 
They are hardly the books for children of this grade, 



156 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

and yet they are an armory from which the teacher 
may equip himself with the fittest knowledge re- 
sources of a skilful instructor. Fiske's text-book for 
grammar grades is nowhere nearly so good, because 
it is an attempt to condense American history for 
children — an impossible undertaking. 

Another excellent book to open the eyes of teachers 
to the value of the few essentials treated in a lively 
manner, is Judson's " The Growth of the American 
Nation." This is an attempt to leave out as many 
of the so-called important facts of our history as pos- 
sible, in order to get the really important events and 
persons into striking profile before the eye. 

Mace's excellent book, " Method in History," is a 
searching inquiry into the dominant and essential 
things in American history. It will surely lead the 
teacher out of the chaos of particular and unorgan- 
ized facts accumulated in text-books to those bold 
headlands from which he can get, from time to time, 
a broad and simple survey of the stream of history ; 
as when one stands on the high projecting front of 
Lookout Mountain, one may gain a picturesque and 
sweeping survey of the course of the Tennessee 
River, with its environing mountain ridges. 

Let the teacher beware, however, of making Mace's 
book a text for high school or Normal school stu- 
dents. It is, in fact, a condensed body of generaliza- 
tions, strong and nourishing meat for those already 
possessing a large store of clear knowledge of Ameri- 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 157 

can history, but sawdust and ashes to young people 
innocent of the facts of history. 

In order to bring out the point for which we are 
contending, with unmistakable clearness, we will say 
that the writer of a text-book in history for the com- 
mon school, and also the teacher who uses it, needs 
to be both a philosopher and a poet ; (1) philosopher 
enough to sift out the few great centralizing ideas of 
history ; (2) poet enough to clothe each of these 
ideas with the rich garniture of concrete imagery, 
simple illustration, and human feeling ; what is com- 
monly called the detail and coloring of the picture. 

The first great topic for study consists in a re- 
survey of the historical causes leading up to the 
American Revolution. This furnishes an excellent 
standpoint from which to view, first, the history of 
the English colonies in America, and secondly, the 
Puritan revolution in England which gave such a 
powerful impulse to the colonization of America. 

A few of the leading points we will pass in review. 
The religious persecutions in Europe, which led to 
the settlement of New England and the middle colo- 
nies, developed in these emigrants a very powerful 
spirit of freedom and independence. During the 
early years of their settlement also they were left 
alone to take care of themselves to such an extent 
that they developed a pronounced democratic spirit 
and a convincing experience in self-government. 
The local governing bodies created by them levied 



158 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

taxes upon them and became more and more the 
chief means of maintaining the popular rights. On 
the other hand, their frequent quarrels with the royal 
governors developed a successful resistance to obnox- 
ious laws and rulers. Almost every one of the colo- 
nies had experience of the conflict of their own 
representatives with tyrannical governors. As the 
colonies grew in importance and their commerce 
became extensive, the trade restrictions imposed upon 
them by England in the form of navigation laws 
were vexatious and injurious. A vigorous system of 
smuggling was carried on by the colonial sailors, 
merchants, and shipowners, in their trade with the 
West Indies and with other countries. In his speech 
on conciliation with America, Burke gives a vivid 
and enthusiastic description of the bold sailors and 
sea captains engaged in the whale fisheries. 

From the very beginning of the settlements the 
spirit of self-reliance was cultivated in the most rigor- 
ous fashion in defending themselves against the 
severities of a harsh climate, and the hostility of 
fierce tribes of Indians. Later on, during the various 
French and Indian wars, they not only cultivated the 
military spirit but discovered also the weak points 
in British soldiers, and the inefficiency of British 
generals. 

The uniform attitude of the British government 
toward America was shown in a desire to exploit the 
colonies by turning their commerce and resources 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 59 

into British trade and revenue. The general ten- 
dency in America, on the contrary, was in the direc- 
tion of a very bold and even reckless assertion of 
liberty. The teacher who wishes to get a clear and 
incisive survey of the situation in 1775, should read 
Burke's " Conciliation with the Colonies." Burke 
says : " In this character of the Americans, a love of 
freedom is the predominating feature which marks 
and distinguishes the whole ; and as an ardent is 
always a jealous affection, your colonies become sus- 
picious, restive, and untractable whenever they see 
the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or 
shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the 
only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit 
of liberty is stronger in the English colonies probably 
than in any other people of the earth, and this from 
a great variety of powerful causes ; which, to under- 
stand the true temper of their minds and the direction 
which this spirit takes, it will not be amiss to lay 
open somewhat more largely." 

The system of taxation imposed by England upon 
the colonies, of which that on tea was a small rem- 
nant, was quite sufficient to kindle this fierce spirit of 
liberty into opposition. 

At the beginning of the seventh grade our course 
of study provides three topics from European history, 
one of which, the Puritan revolution in England, 
furnishes a good opportunity to review that period of 
English history which has most powerfully influenced 



l6o SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

American history. Burke says : " The colonies emi- 
grated from you when this part of your character 
(the spirit of freedom) was most predominant; and 
they took this bias and direction the moment they 
parted from your hands. They are therefore not 
only devoted to liberty but liberty according to 
English ideas and English principles." The period 
referred to here by Burke is that of the Puritan revo- 
lution in England. Charles I, in the effort to rule 
his people and levy taxes without a Parliament, 
brought on this desperate struggle with his people. 
There is no doubt but that Charles was making a 
direct assault upon the common rights of English- 
men by taxing them without their consent, by im- 
prisonment and death without trial, in fact by an 
arbitrary determination to have his own way without 
let or hindrance. But under the leadership of such 
men as Pym and Hampden, and later of Cromwell, 
this effect of royal tyranny brought on a war which 
resulted in Charles's own overthrow and death, and 
the Puritans under 'Cromwell triumphed. Undoubt- 
edly England was fighting the great battle of the 
world for free parliamentary government. It will be 
of much interest to compare the points in contro- 
versy with those which rose at the beginning of the 
American Revolution. The latter was also brought 
on by a conflict over taxation, and England claimed 
the right to remove Americans to England for trial. 
Judson, in " The Growth of the American Nation," 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE l6l 

says : "The colonists were willing, if the king should 
ask them for aid, to appropriate liberally of their 
resources for that purpose. But they declared that 
Parliament had no legal right to tax them at all. 
Taxation without representation was against the fun- 
damental rights of Englishmen, and as they had no 
representative in Parliament, it followed that the 
only legal way to levy taxes was by act of the various 
colonial legislatures. 

" Franklin carried the argument further. He 
showed that the colonies had all been established 
in the royal domain under direct charter of the 
crown, and in no case by act of Parliament. Hence, 
he declared, the colonies were joined to England only 
by the crown, as were Jersey, Guernsey, Ireland, and 
Scotland before the union, and therefore the only 
legal taxation was by the colonial legislatures on 
request of the crown." 

It has been frequently observed that Washington 
and the patriots were simply continuing in America 
the struggle for English rights which Hampden had 
maintained in England. 

In handling the Puritan revolution in England we 
may also discuss the religious principles of the Puri- 
tans during the Commonwealth, and compare them 
with the Puritans of New England. It is interesting 
also to observe that Virginia sided with the royalists, 
partly because of the aristocratic class of English 
gentry in Virginia, and partly because of the Episco- 



1 62 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

pal church tendencies of that colony. Moreover, the 
general spirit of independence and liberty which 
manifested itself so boldly in Cromwell's time has a 
striking resemblance to the free spirit of the Ameri- 
cans in the Revolution. 

It will not be far out of the way to assert that in 
the Revolution the Americans were fighting the 
world's battle of freedom, and were simply continu- 
ing in a more advanced stage the development of 
the Puritan revolution in England. 

If we find time in seventh grade to give an ac- 
count of the Protestant Reformation in Europe, we 
shall be able to go back one step further to the 
fountain and source of religious and political free- 
dom in modern times, to the life and work of 
Luther. 

In approaching the outbreak of the American 
Revolution, the life of Samuel Adams furnishes an 
extremely interesting and concrete example of the 
spirit of American freedom at this time. He was 
the head and front of every movement for resisting 
the efforts of England to impose upon the colonies. 
The teacher at least should read thoroughly Hos- 
mer's " Life of Samuel Adams," which will enable 
him to live over again that famous series of events 
which led on to the break with England. It has 
been said that Boston at this time was the most im- 
portant city in the world, and that Samuel Adams 
was far away the leading man in Boston. It is for- 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 63 

tunate that we have at the entrance-way to the Rev- 
olution such a stirring and instructive biography of a 
man who was himself the chief agent in bringing on 
the crisis. 

In the Revolutionary War itself we desire to pick 
out a few important events, campaigns, and biogra- 
phies, for thorough and interesting study. 

We have no desire to emphasize the bloody and 
destructive work of war ; but if we study it at all, let 
us get deep impressions, not mere scratches on the 
memory. A few fundamental ideas brought out with 
great distinctness and rooted in a groundwork of 
well-organized and related facts will be very fruitful 
in a child's thought and life. The tracing of causal 
relations is vital to every lesson. The spirit, incen- 
tive, and hardihood of the soldiery should be appre- 
ciated ; also the qualities of the leaders in camp or 
in congress. 

The reform called for in teaching American his- 
tory is like that already adopted in physics and 
chemistry for high schools. The old plan was to 
spend a short term of three months on a systematic 
outline of all the chief topics of chemistry or physics, 
barely touching each one. The plan now used in 
the best schools is to spend three or more terms 
upon one of these studies, and build up experimen- 
tally and inductively with plenty of illustrative ex- 
amples a solid basis of real knowledge, without much 
effort at scientific completeness in the whole subject. 



1 64 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

In history also we need to extend the instruction 
over a much longer school period, and enrich it with 
interesting illustrations ; we may make it more real 
and tangible by tracing and combining causes and 
by collecting a wealth of appropriate details. We 
may select for this purpose important central topics 
whose significance is seen by well-chosen compari- 
son, and by tracing causal relations with the past. 

Some such brief outline as the following may serve 
to indicate the leading topics. The events about 
Boston till the evacuation, the struggle for New 
York, the Declaration of Independence, the retreat 
through New Jersey, Burgoyne's invasion, Washing- 
ton at Valley Forge, Cornwallis's campaign at the 
South, the financial condition at the close of the war, 
the life and character of Washington as shown dur- 
ing the difficult trials of the Revolution. 

We are again fortunate in having the life of Wash- 
ington to serve as a centre of influence and interest 
in treating the leading topics of the war. Scudder's 
" Life of Washington," especially that part of it deal- 
ing with the Revolution, may serve as an excellent 
text-book for this period of history. Fiske's "War 
of Independence " is also one of the best books on 
this topic. Fiske-Irving's " Life of Washington " 
is full of concrete and interesting matter. If the 
teacher can secure a thoughtful study and reading of 
such books during the year, and by means of choice 
references and source materials, maps, and plans of 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 165 

battles, can focus the attention upon the central 
topics indicated, he will be able to produce serious 
and absorbing thought upon these problems. The 
biographies of Washington and Samuel Adams, 
besides the strong personal interest which they 
awaken, are valuable also because they represent so 
well the two prominent colonies, Virginia and Massa- 
chusetts, in the character of the Puritan and the Vir- 
ginia gentleman. Samuel Adams, more than any one 
else, led Massachusetts into and through this gigantic 
struggle. Washington was first of all a Virginian in 
heart and sympathy, but grew into the full stature of 
an American patriot, who grasped the whole situation 
and rose to a worthy leadership of the young nation. 
One of the best examples of a large historical 
topic which furnishes a simple unit of thought is 
Burgoyne's invasion. A full and interesting treat- 
ment of this single campaign would bring out in a 
striking way the advantage of concentration of time 
and effort upon such a topic. S. A. Drake's mono- 
graph of 142 pages, upon this campaign, forms a 
very good basis for such a study. Two or three 
weeks spent upon this topic would unearth a great 
body of intensely interesting material. The war 
would become a sharp reality. The pride and the 
high hopes of the British in setting out, the splen- 
did pageant of an English army moving up Lake 
Champlain, capturing Ticonderoga, with strong 
hopes of pushing on successfully to New York : 



1 66 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

on the other hand, the rousing of the New York and 
New England yeomanry, the presence and danger of 
Indian allies, the splendid victory at Bennington, the 
stratagems on the Mohawk, the great struggle at 
Saratoga and its results — all these elaborated into 
their details and seen in their mutual relations, will 
give a much deeper insight into the spirit of the 
American people, the hopes of the British, and the 
character of the Indians, than can ever be secured 
from an outline history. Such a single campaign, 
intimately studied, is worth more for patriotism, and 
for knowledge of war in all its horrors, distresses, 
and glories than a dozen campaigns epitomized and 
memorized. 

In discussing the financial condition at the close of 
the Revolutionary War, a short biography of Robert 
Morris, the financier of the Revolution, should be 
given. A closer examination of this point will bring 
out one of the most trying difficulties of the Revolu- 
tionary conflict, that of supplying the army with 
food, clothing, and pay. The worthlessness of paper 
money, and the complete destruction of financial and 
commercial credit cannot be better explained. 1 

Benjamin Franklin's career in France during the 
Revolutionary War is also very picturesque, interest- 
ing, and important. Children should be already 
familiar with the character of Franklin in colonial 

1 See Sparks's " The Men who made the Nation." Sketch of Robert 
Morris. 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 67 

times, but his life in France, and the masterly per- 
sonal qualities and diplomacy by which he gradually 
aided in bringing the French government to side 
with the Americans, constitute a very interesting 
story. This narrative should be continued up to the 
time of the negotiation of the treaty of peace, in 
1783. Another biography of great interest to Amer- 
icans is that of Lafayette ; his early life in France, his 
enthusiasm for the American cause, his escape to this 
country and service under Washington, his promi- 
nence in the French Revolution, his imprisonment, 
and final visit to this country, make up a very 
romantic story. 

We notice also that one of the European topics for 
study in the seventh grade is Louis XIV and the 
French monarchy, — not a detailed study of that 
difficult period of French history, but some account 
of the extravagant ostentation, expensive wars, and 
despotism of the French monarchy ; the aristocracy, 
living in great luxury and splendor in Paris, and the 
great masses of the people miserably poor. In their 
previous studies of French people and explorers in 
Canada, the children have acquired a considerable 
insight into French character. It is certainly inter- 
esting to trace the causes which led a despotic gov- 
ernment like that of France to aid a free people like 
the Americans in securing their independence. 

The last great topic in seventh grade deals with 
that part of our annals which Fiske has called the 



1 68 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

" critical period of American history," and which led 
to the framing and adopting of the Constitution. No 
more instructive period of our history can be found 
than that which describes the rivalries which sprang 
up between the thirteen states as soon as indepen- 
dence was assured. The utter failure of the Articles 
of Confederation to hold the colonists together, the 
financial weakness and disgrace of the whole country, 
and the tendencies toward disunion and anarchy, 
help us to understand why thoughtful men and 
patriots became more and more anxious to establish 
some strong and stable form of government which 
could command the obedience of all the colonies. 

When, finally, the best representative men of the 
whole country met in convention at Philadelphia, it 
is very instructive to observe how many divergent 
and contradictory opinions were brought together. 
It may be said that in this convention all the most 
powerful tendencies of American history, with their 
roots deeply embedded in the past, were represented. 
The discussions were so inharmonious, and even hos- 
tile, that the best men for a long time despaired of 
reaching any common agreement. When finally the 
Constitution was worked out and accepted by a ma- 
jority of the convention, it was found to consist of 
a series of great compromises. 

The study of the Constitutional Convention at Phil- 
adelphia is the study of one of the most interesting 
and important events of the world's history. To 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 69 

what extent children in the seventh grade can com- 
prehend this, depends partly upon the method of 
treatment. One of the simplest ways of comprehend- 
ing it is to study somewhat carefully a few of the 
most influential men in the convention, and get the 
strong individual point of view of each ; for example, 
Madison, Hamilton, Washington, Franklin. 

Another important phase of this study is its close 
dependency upon the previous history of the country. 
The experiences of the thirteen colonies with their 
local governments and with the Articles of Confed- 
eration had taught them many great lessons, and the 
Constitution incorporates many of these features into 
its own framework. 

So far as the children have really understood 
American history, thus far they will find that the 
Constitution is a sort of epitome or summing up of 
the political history of America. The Philadelphia 
convention offers, therefore, one of the most ad- 
vantageous mountain peaks, where we can stop and 
look back over the whole previous history of the 
country and see the point toward which all leading 
events have tended. Not that children can take a 
deep or broad philosophical view of our history. But 
they can see in the men of the convention the repre- 
sentatives of state sovereignty, and of federal unity, 
the double representative system, by states and by 
popular franchise, the division into state and national 
prerogatives, the double judicial system, the recog- 



I70 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

nition of slavery and the slave power, and the pres- 
ence of a strong central executive. 

The opportunity which the study of the Philadel- 
phia convention offers for a purposeful review of pre- 
vious American history, furnishes one of the best 
illustrations of the proper plan of review, namely, 
not mere shallow and formal repetition of facts pre- 
viously memorized, but an examination of facts 
studied before as great causal influences which are 
focussed at a later important juncture in history, 
where their true character as historical forces is dis- 
cerned. Let children find the previous history of 
the country as registered in the Constitution. 

The final ratification of the Constitution by the peo- 
ple of the states, not, however, without memorable 
struggles, as in New York and Massachusetts, made 
this great instrument the act of the American people. 

The effort to grasp the meaning of this great 
period of history (1763- 1789) by selecting a few sali- 
ent topics for a somewhat exhaustive study is based 
upon the conviction that these apparently complex 
materials of history admit of great simplification. 
Two reasons may be assigned for our belief in this 
inherent underlying simplicity in historical events. 
First, the leading topics set up for full study are 
types, and secondly, the dominant causal idea that 
lies wrapped up in a series of great events is found 
to interpret and unify many minor causes which are 
often mistaken for distinct and separate influences. 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 171 

First, as to types. The colonists themselves were 
extremely shrewd in detecting the typical character 
of events. The little tax on tea was nothing in it- 
self, but it was a perfect type of all taxes levied 
unjustly by Parliament. In this bagatelle they per- 
ceived the whole import and purpose of the Tory 
government and party in England. 

On the other hand, the British government was 
not mistaken in regarding Samuel Adams and John 
Hancock as signal types of all the Massachusetts 
rebels, and if they could once lay hands on them, they 
would give some examples of punishment which every 
British subject would perfectly understand. In fact, 
Adams was such a perfect representative of the New 
England spirit of this time, that his biography gives 
the very essence of the whole struggle against Eng- 
land. 

In the same way, Burgoyne's campaign, being so 
typical in character, may serve as the chief military 
campaign of the war. John Paul Jones is also the 
one naval hero whose exploits may serve to illustrate 
the vigor of our sea-fighters. 

In Washington the best elements of the American 
character were so concentrated and almost idealized 
that Americans have always contemplated with pleas- 
ure the reflection of the nation's purpose in his per- 
sonality. 

Second, as to causes. In nearly all the large units 
of study it is interesting to sift out the fundamental 



172 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

cause, as, for example, in the causes of the Revolu- 
tion, chief of all is the assumption by Parliament of 
the right to tax the colonies. In the deliberations of 
the Federal Convention the absolute necessity for es- 
tablishing a government with sovereign power is the 
preeminent cause. 

Professor Mace illustrates this point, the unity of 
causes, in discussing the causes of the decline of the 
Confederation. 1 

" i. The Confederation had no executive or judicial 

department. 
" 2. Congress could not raise an army. 
" 3. No power of direct or indirect taxation was given 

to the Confederation. 
" 4. Congress had no control over domestic commerce. 
" 5. Congress could not enforce treaties with other 

nations. 
" 6. The Confederation operated on states and not on 

individuals. 
" 7. The Articles of Confederation recognized the 

sovereignty of the state. 
" 8. Voting in Congress was by states. 
" 9. The people owed allegiance to the state only. 

" The general or fundamental cause may be found, 
and the others may be interpreted with reference to 
it. The careful comparison and contrast of the 
causes listed above will show that the first eight are 

1 " Method in History," Mace, p. 30. 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 73 

closely related to the ninth cause. By common con- 
sent, when the colonists transferred their allegiance 
from England, they gave it on all domestic concerns 
primarily to their respective colonial governments. 
The Continental Congress recognized this relation in 
creating the Confederation by making the states, in 
the main, sovereign. Wherever primary allegiance 
is placed, there sovereignty will reside. This shows 
that allegiance conditions sovereignty, and that cause 
seven is the result of cause nine." 

A further comparison of each of the causes as- 
signed with cause nine, leads to the same result. A 
single cause is discovered, by reflection, to be at the 
bottom of what is usually described as a variety of 
causes. 

Not only does the effort to discover types and 
fundamental causes by comparing events greatly sim- 
plify the complex data of history, but this process 
disciplines the mind to self-activity and to inductive 
methods of reasoning. 

To put these separate facts before the children and 
allow them to discover the fundamental unity in the 
type or in the deeper cause is a superior form of 
instruction. The two best results of education are 
thus achieved at the same time, a simple organization 
of knowledge and the best mental discipline. 

It will doubtless be claimed by some that the course 
which we have here prescribed is wholly beyond the 
range of seventh-grade pupils. It should be remem- 



174 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

bered, however, that these very topics are usually 
handled now in the seventh and eighth grades in 
about one-quarter of the time which it is proposed 
in our plan to give to them. By dealing with all 
these subjects concretely, biographically, and by 
comparative review of similar facts previously stud- 
ied, by illustrations from the present workings of 
our laws and Constitution, and by giving sufficient 
time in each large topic for suitable descriptive and 
illustrative detail, the more important phases of these 
great American topics can be well understood by 
grammar grades. 

Children in the seventh grade are well able to get 
a full profit from the use of such source material as 
is furnished by Hart's " Source Book of American 
History." There is nothing difficult or complicated 
in the use of this source-book. The extracts are 
usually brief and simple, bearing directly on topics 
treated in the standard text-books, and neither teacher 
nor pupil need waste any time in finding the appro- 
priate matter. The teacher should be definite and 
exact in assigning the references. Half a dozen or 
less copies of the source-book in the library will 
answer the needs of a dozen pupils. 1 

Hart says source materials " are to act as adjuncts 
to historical narrative, by illustrating it and making it 
vivid ; as by analyzing a few flowers the young stu- 

1 Hart's " American History told by Contemporaries," in four volumes, 
is extremely valuable as reference material for the study of sources. 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 75 

dent of botany learns some plant structure, and 
accepts the rest from the text-book, so the student of 
history, by intimate acquaintance with a few writers 
of contemporary books, finds his reading in secondary 
works easier to understand. 

" The use of sources enforces on the mind what 
ought to be familiar to any pupil in history : that the 
text-book grows out of such material, directly or at 
second hand ; and that the knowledge of the writer 
of history goes no farther than the sum of his sources. 
On the Revolution, for instance, the pupil must real- 
ize that the books quote only a few out of hundreds 
of sources, and that generalization from narrow bases 
is dangerous. 

" Sources may very well furnish sufficient types of 
oft-repeated experience : for instance, from the text- 
book the pupil gets the impression of the number of 
voyages of discovery, and of the cross-relations of 
the Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Dutch, 
and Swedes in the New World during two centuries. 
But the general aim and results of those voyages are 
well enough set forth in the seventeen pages of 
Chapter I [of the 'Source Book'], which includes 
one Spanish voyage and one Spanish land exploration, 
two English sea-voyages and one land exploration, and 
one French exploration. Since it is a common expe- 
rience that the illustration fixes the principle in mind, 
and not the principle the illustration, it is fair to ex- 
pect that these illustrative voyages will serve to make 



176 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

vivid the consecutive narrative of explorations in 
general." 

Hinsdale illustrates well the value of such sources. 
"Some years ago I read with deep interest the sec- 
tion of an ill-put-together town history, entitled ' The 
American Revolution.' The town was Torrington, 
Conn. Here were quotations from the town records, 
muster rolls of the militia companies, orders for 
drafts, requisitions for supplies, reports from the 
seat of war, lists of killed and wounded, etc., inter- 
spersed with some incident, anecdote, or personal 
characterization. Following the tax-gatherer on his 
rounds ; reading the frequent calls for soldiers and 
orders for the militia to turn out ; observing the 
women at their heavy tasks, spinning wool and weav- 
ing flax, making blankets and tents for the army, and 
often gathering the crops or making the maple sugar ; 
scanning the hard bill of domestic fare, breakfast 
without tea and dinner without salt — I formed a 
more realistic view than before of the times that 
tried men's souls." 1 

Mace sums up this argument with illustrations as 
follows : — 

f " The superiority of this sort of material in the 
process of interpretation may be understood from 
the following considerations: 1. The facts thus pre- 
sented are first-hand — unorganized, and the student 
is left to contend with a real problem with no ready- 

1 " How to Study and Teach History," Hinsdale, p. 34. 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 77 

made solution at hand ; he must work without the 
author's aid. Without discussing the educational 
value of this sort of work, it is apparent at a glance 
that a wide difference separates the direct study of 
the Mayflower Compact from the study of a school 
text's statements about this document. 2. This 
direct study brings immediate contact with the source 
of truth concerning the content of the Compact. 
It is possible that texts have been written, whose 
authors did not have first-hand access to the material 
of history, but have written from another's interpre- 
tation of that material. But what of it? Simply 
this : the student of such a text will be still farther 
removed from the real source of truth, and like the 
author, not knowing all the concrete facts, or not 
knowing them exactly as they were, may make 
erroneous interpretations. 3. Even if the facts 
obtained in the above way are correctly interpreted, 
there is yet something lacking in the effect produced, 
which can only be supplied by applying the process 
of interpretation to original material. In no other 
way, in the study of historical material, may the 
student get deep and realistic conceptions of the 
life he studies — ideas and passions, motives and 
prejudices, and all those subtle influences that go to 
make up concrete public sentiment. Take the ex- 
amples of interpretation given above : how much 
more easily and correctly could the student put the 
right content into the events connected with founding 

N 



178 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Jamestown if he could read the motives of king and 
company in the charters granted, and could add to 
these the opinions of the settlers. Even the writings 
of John Smith, with all their exaggerations, would 
give meaning and reality to these events, such as 
could come in no other way. Again, how can the 
student get most easily and fully into the minds and 
hearts of the colonial merchants, the motives and 
passions that swayed them when organizing the 
non-importation associations ? Evidently by reading 
the addresses sent to king and Parliament and to 
the colonial legislatures ; by reading the resolutions 
of town meetings in pledging support ; by studying 
the correspondence between the associations of dif- 
ferent towns, and by following the newspaper and 
pamphlet war that arose over these organizations 
and their work. Likewise with the struggle over 
state sovereignty, or any other phase of thought 
which the student tries to reach through events. 
Depth of impression and richness of content will 
always come from this sort of face-to-face contact 
with a people." * 

No part of our history shows a closer or more 
many-sided relation of the best literary works to 
historical events than the seventh-grade material. 
Many of the most familiar ballads, orations, and 
poems of American literature deal with Revolu- 
tionary persons and scenes. We should bring the 

1 " Method in History," Mace, p. 44. 



HISTORY IN THE SEVENTH GRADE 1 79 

history of this epoch into hand-and-glove companion- 
ship with the best American literature of the period. 
In the reading lessons, which are parallel with the 
history in the seventh grade, we should read " Paul 
Revere's Ride," "Song of Marion's Men," "Under the 
Old Elm," " Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill," 
Webster's Orations at Bunker Hill, Warren's Address, 
Declaration of Independence, Speech of John Adams 
(Webster), Burke's Speech on the American War, 
Washington's Letters, Farewell Address, etc. ; " The 
Green Mountain Boys," " A Ballad of the Boston 
Tea Party," "Lexington," "Old Ticonderoga," 
Everett's Oration on Washington, etc. The strong, 
true spirit of the Revolutionary patriots nowhere finds 
better expression than in the graphic word of the poet, 
which leaves a lasting impress upon young minds. It 
is the spirit of our best American history that we wish 
to see live again in the hearts and convictions of the 
young. In literature this spirit finds the culmina- 
tion of its influence and the living and lasting form 
which it creates for itself. History and literature, 
therefore, should travel together, and reenforce each 
other's teaching. Reading lessons in historical mas- 
terpieces will be strongly helped by previous histori- 
cal studies, and the ideas gained in history will find 
themselves intensified and reenforced by the energy 
and imagery of poet and orator. Our aim is no less 
than to unite the influences of American literature 
and history in setting into prominence those personal 



180 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

and national ideals which are the richest heritage 
of American culture. History furnishes the plain, 
crude material which literature works up into a 
finer fabric. The biography, history, literature, and 
geography of our native land are studies powerful 
to stimulate our youth. On this broad, geographical 
theatre, men of high purpose and strong wills have 
met the great problems of history and politics, and 
have solved them with such wisdom and energy that 
the world has resounded with their names and deeds. 
Within the last fifty years have risen in our land also 
half a dozen poets who have interpreted the lessons 
of our past history, and the hopes and responsi- 
bilities of our future with such measured strength 
and kindling imagery, that every generous youth 
must feel the spell and awake to the enthusiasm of 
patriotism. These rich sources of culture and char- 
acter in our own American history and literature 
have been but meagrely used in the common schools. 
They possess untold power to impress the best ideals 
of country and of home upon the young. 



CHAPTER VI 

EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 

The topics assigned to European history in the 
first term of the eighth grade will be interesting 
and instructive to eighth-year pupils, if handled 
orally. The previous studies in the geography, his- 
tory, and literature of Europe will prepare the way 
for a better understanding. We have no single text- 
book that would cover this ground, and long and 
difficult readings should not be required of the chil- 
dren. Large maps of Europe and of the world will 
be constantly needed, and these topics will furnish 
a fine opportunity for a review of the geography of 
Europe and of the world. 

Nothing approaching a deeper historical study of 
these topics can be made, and yet an important sig- 
nificant idea in each case can be worked out. 

In studying American history since the adoption 
of the Constitution, eighth-grade pupils will meet 
some problems too difficult for them to solve. The 
web of our history becomes more complex and in- 
tricate. Eighth-grade pupils are from thirteen to 
fifteen years of age, and not yet capable of deep 

iSi 



1 82 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

and comprehensive thought on social and political 
affairs. But many of them are completing their 
education for citizenship, in the common schools, 
and in making our national history an important 
culture and character study through the several 
years of the intermediate and grammar grades, we 
must decide what topics of our later history are 
calculated to arouse the thought and interest of the 
eighth-grade pupils. 

The American topics assigned to the eighth grade 
involve greater difficulties than the history work of 
any other year of the common school. As we ap- 
proach the more recent topics of our history, the 
large and complex scale of events increases, and 
besides, many of these topics are still in the region 
of controversy and have not fallen into the clear 
perspective of history. Not a few of the best 
teachers have avoided the teaching of nineteenth- 
century history because of this complexity and un- 
settled aspect of recent politics. On the other hand, 
one of the chief purposes of history and school 
studies generally is to bring the children somewhere 
near to our modern problems and into sympathy 
with present social and economic life. 

During the four years preceding, the children 
should have been drawing deep and inspiriting les- 
sons from the biography and history of our earlier 
epochs. They have become interested in the repre- 
sentative leaders and in the growth of the country 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 1 83 

and of its interests. The spirit of patriotism has 
already become a conscious impulse, setting up at- 
tractive ideals to be attained by individuals and by 
society. This love of country and deep concern for 
its institutions should grow slowly and steadily, hav- 
ing its roots fed from the rich, concrete, personal 
materials of history as detailed in biography, and in 
the dramatic episodes of political life. It is futile 
to expect such fruitful results except as they spring 
naturally out of a rich soil well cultivated. The 
short, hothouse methods of quickly appropriating 
the condensed results of our history in a single 
term's or year's course are thoroughly artificial and 
unnatural. 

The expansion of our country under the Constitu- 
tion until it had covered the better half of a conti- 
nent with Anglo-Saxon ideas of government, school, 
and social order, is the theme of this year's study. 
The gigantic growth and progress of the nation in 
all essential elements of greatness will become a 
source of interest and pride. The forces which have 
threatened to check and mar this progress need to 
be seen in their hurtful and destructive influence. 
A few of the larger influences which have wrought 
such marvellous results in the last hundred years may 
be plainly seen and understood by eighth-grade chil- 
dren. The more intricate problems of legislation, 
finance, tariff, taxation, and political maneuvering 
and compromise may be let alone. We suggest the 



1 84 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

following list of topics upon which to focus the chief 
attention : — 

Organization of the government and of the 
finances. 

Growth in territory. 

Internal improvement. 

History and extension of slavery. 

Leading inventions and inventors. 

Immigration. 

The rise and influence of political parties. 

The three departments of our government. 

Our system of revenue. 

Two leading campaigns of the Civil War. 

Civil service reform. 

Our plan of work in this grade will be similar to 
that in sixth and seventh grades, namely, to choose 
a few important centres of study, to collect about 
each of them a body of graphic illustrative materials, 
to trace the causal relations between these centres 
and other important subjects, and to make all the 
study more vivid and realistic. This more elaborate 
study of a few important topics allows also a wider 
use of references, and cultivates an acquaintance with 
other than text-books and the method of using them. 
Most historical subjects have certain dramatic and 
picturesque phases in which the men or forces at 
work are brought out in more striking relief. Such 
was Webster's appearance in the senate in the second 
speech on Foot's resolution ; so the sending of the 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 185 

first telegraphic message ; the completion of the first 
Pacific railway ; Lincoln at Gettysburg, Grant and 
Lee at Appomattox. It is well to dwell upon these 
scenes till they stand out in distinctive coloring. 

Most of the large topics selected for the eighth- 
grade history have a continuous, chronological, and 
causal sequence extending, in some cases, through 
the whole constitutional period, and much more. 
The growth of slavery until it culminated in the Civil 
War and reconstruction, is an illustration of this long- 
continued sequence of causally related facts. During 
the eighth grade the chief stages in the slavery con- 
flict should be worked out, and the whole movement 
surveyed as a unit. Not only so, but an excellent 
review of slavery during colonial and Revolutionary 
times may be made so as to secure a broad survey of 
this whole question from the earliest times to the 
present. Such a topic as this, worked out in its 
relations to other leading events, can teach even to 
children the lesson of cause and effect in history. A 
second topic which has a continuous development 
through this whole period and reaches back into 
colonial times is the growth of territory. The series 
of problems raised in succession by the steady expan- 
sion of population westward is very closely connected 
with the greatest affairs in our history. The con- 
quest of the northwest territory by Clark during 
the Revolution was soon followed by the acquisition 
of Louisiana and Florida. The war with Mexico 



1 86 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

resulted in the conquest and purchase of still larger 
tracts westward. By the purchase of Alaska and the 
recent acquisitions of the Spanish-American War, we 
have completed a series of great steps expressing the 
forward movement of the American people. We 
should study and compare, one with another, these 
various additions of territory gained by purchase or 
by conquest, and pass judgment in a fair-minded way 
upon the motives which led to these acquisitions. In 
order to understand this whole topic more perfectly, 
we should compare the later additions with our orig- 
inal territory in regard to size, population, and re- 
sources. Closely connected with this enlargement of 
territory is the steady admission of new states into 
the Union, by which a constant change and enlarge- 
ment of the Union has been effected. 

The other large topics of this school year, such as 
immigration, the rise and growth of political parties, 
the civil service reform, the laying out of great traffic 
routes and internal improvements contain this long- 
continued causal sequence. Children are able to 
follow out such a causal connection of events if the 
topics are treated with sufficient fulness, and if time 
is taken for proper comparisons and reviews of 
earlier stages in the series of events. 

In the seventh grade we discussed somewhat at 
length the advantage of selecting a few of these 
great topics for elaborate treatment. A few large 
units of thought, centres of historic interest, have 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 1 87 

great power to organize a multitude of facts and 
throw them, like an army of soldiers, into ranks and 
files. Professor George S. Morris gave an excellent 
philosophical statement of the value of such wholes 
in historical instruction. 

" The first impression that the world of history 
produces in the mind of the learner is that of an 
indefinite multitude of different events. One event 
is not another. Each is a separate fact. Each has 
its separate place in space or time, or both. Each is 
what the others are not. . . . But, to stop short with 
this cognizance of the multitude of facts in their sep- 
aration and difference, not to see them in the unity 
of their relations, is not to learn the lesson of history. 
The mind thus simply filled, or crammed, is not 
instructed. Its sight is superficial ; it is not insight. 
And the world of history, thus viewed, is not com- 
prehended as an orderly world. It is not a ' rounded 
world ' and ' fair to see.' It puts intelligence to con- 
fusion. It is, indeed, my masters, ' a mad World ' ! 

" History is not simply (multifarious) events. It is 
the logic of events. Historic intelligence is not 
merely information respecting events. It is the com- 
prehension of their logic. 

" Philosophy may be fitly described as the science 
of wholes. In the last resort it is the science of the 
whole, as such, or of the one universal drama of exist- 
ence in the midst of which man is placed, and in 
which he actively participates. Now, history, accord- 



1 88 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

ing to the familiar aphorism, is ' philosophy teaching 
by example.' Not the 'example,' taken by itself as 
an isolated fact, is history. Thus taken, it is only a 
brute fact divested of relations, and offering neither 
attraction nor support to intelligence. History is 
the example, plus that which it exemplifies. It is 
the example, plus its teaching. It is the ' fact ' seen 
in the relations which alone render it comprehensible. 
It is the fact seen as part or member of an organic 
whole, and, consequently, as exemplifying in its place 
and measure the law, idea, or life of the whole. It is, 
in short, the fact seen as the illustration and phenom- 
enal incarnation of a universal and livingly operative 
reason, Logos, or logic, which, interior to the fact, is 
the ground of its reality, and, transcending the par- 
ticular fact, connects it with all other facts, and so is 
the ground of its intelligibility. History, taken in its 
broadest sense, is the object-lesson of philosophy. It 
is the subject-matter of philosophy's demonstrations. 
It is the test of the correctness of her conclusions. 
And true ' history,' in the narrower or more common 
sense of this word, is nothing if not philosophical. 

" Every successful teacher of history, even with 
the youngest pupils, teaches in something of the 
philosophical spirit, and with a method more or less 
philosophical. He does not, indeed, neglect to insist 
on the acquisition, by patient mnemonic exercise, of 
exact information regarding particular facts ; but he 
manages, at the same time, to engage the learner's 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 1 89 

imagination for the perception of groups of facts 
viewed as wholes, and having, as such wholes, to 
some degree, a specific character, coloring, or signifi- 
cance. He makes the pupil exercise with himself 
the artistic faculty of inward picturing. With imma- 
ture students this is all that is possible, and it is 
enough." *• 

It is necessary for the teacher to single out these 
natural wholes in history, these centres of grouping 
and picturing, these rallying-points of thought from 
which causal influences can be traced out, and larger 
comparisons be instituted. 

The system of careful reviews of previous periods 
of history by means of systematic comparisons of 
later events with those previously studied may be 
admirably illustrated in the work of the eighth grade. 
In fact, the great multitude and variety of facts 
somewhat carefully studied in all the earlier grades 
furnishes an excellent basis of comparisons with 
most of the topics of the eighth year. For example, 
later modes of travel by steamboat, railroad, electric 
cars, and automobiles may be compared with the 
slow and difficult travel of colonial times on horse- 
back over bad roads, often with no bridges across the 
streams. In the great period of steamboat naviga- 
tion on the rivers and lakes, it is profitable to com- 
pare such journeys with the early canoe voyages of 
the Indians and wood-rangers, and later with travels 

1 " Method of Teaching and Studying History" (Hall), pp. 150-151. 



190 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

by rail. The emigration of different nationalities 
from Europe to this country, since the adoption of 
the Constitution, may be compared in numbers and 
quality with that before the Revolution. The chief 
battles of the Civil War may be compared with those 
of the Revolution, and of the war with Mexico. In 
studying the paper money and the financial situation 
during the Civil War, it is well to look back upon 
similar facts during the Revolution. Great inventions 
may be studied and compared with one another in 
their effects upon the country, such as the locomotive 
engine, the cotton gin, the steamboat, and the electric 
telegraph. As already noted, the successive acquisi- 
tions of territory may be compared with one another. 
The statesmen of later periods may be compared 
with one another and with those of an earlier period. 
Such comparisons also lead to comprehensive views. 
By comparison, for example, we shall find that 
Franklin, John Adams, Hamilton, Washington, Web- 
ster, and Lincoln were strong and positive represen- 
tatives of the federal idea in government, that is, of a 
strong, central power which is able to control and 
unify the states. A similar series of comparisons 
will bring out the fact that Samuel Adams, Patrick 
Henry, Jefferson, Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis were 
distrustful of a central government and disposed to 
emphasize the idea of state sovereignty. If children 
gain sufficient knowledge of these men in the course 
of history instruction to draw these conclusions as the 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 191 

natural results of comparisons, which they themselves 
make, the instruction will be of a superior quality. 
We are disposed to think that the difficulty lies not 
in the inability of children to draw inferences, but 
first in the failure to get at the significant facts in the 
lives of these men, and second in the neglect of the 
method of comparison. 

There is scarcely an important topic of nineteenth- 
century history which does not admit of these fruit- 
ful comparisons with our earlier history. To keep 
the children thoughtful in seeing resemblances and 
contrasts between the earlier and later events is the 
best method of thoughtful review. It leads gradually 
to the classification of events according to their char- 
acter and real worth, and to the formation of great 
series and groups of related topics. The most valua- 
ble inferences are drawn from such study. 

The value of such comparisons has been affirmed 
in the most convincing way by some of the best 
teachers of history. W. C. Collar says : " To point 
out relations, to contrast and compare times, institu- 
tions, events, men, is one of the most delightful and 
most useful parts of the teacher's work. To encour- 
age pupils to discover likenesses and differences is to 
promote thinking, to enlarge the mental horizon, to 
induce a habit of mind of inestimable value. Take, 
for example, the fundamental laws of the Hebrews, 
the Greeks, and the Romans ; their constitutions, 
which embodied and expressed their most striking 



192 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

1 

and distinctive national characteristics. It would be 
easy to show, how on the one hand the Mosaic con- 
stitution, the Decalogue, aimed to make men moral 
and religious ; while on the other the Greek and 
Roman constitutions sought to form men into soldiers, 
and to make them into members of a body politic. 
Hence the importance of private conduct under the 
one and its relative unimportance under the other, 
with all the far-reaching consequences that fol- 
lowed. In the study of Greek history a compari- 
son of the two rival states, Athens and Sparta, in 
spirit and policy, and the tracing of the immediate 
and remote effects on themselves and all Hellas, will 
not only impart increased interest, by bringing into 
clearer relief the essential characteristics, the heroism, 
the selfishness, the hardihood, the cruelty, the narrow- 
ness of the one, and the intelligence, love of knowl- 
edge and beauty, but also, alas ! the sensuality, levity, 
and weakness of the other ; but it will suggest many 
an important lesson, and will be an excellent prepara- 
tion for the reading of modern history with a more 
intelligent observation and reflection. 

" If, then, comparison, conscious or unconscious, is a 
necessary condition of knowledge, is one in danger of 
pressing the comparative method of historical study 
too far? Explicit comparisons at every step are not 
necessary, and the strict limitations of time must not 
be forgotten. I have never failed to awaken interest 
by such comparisons, whether in the study of ancient 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 1 93 

or modern history, even when the basis of knowledge 
on the part of pupils was the slenderest. But a strik- 
ing parallelism pointed out here and there will be 
enough to give direction to the thoughts in reading 
history, to lead pupils, as has already been observed, 
to see and follow out analogies themselves, to bring 
home to the consciousness what is far away, and to 
recognize in what appears new and strange what is 
known or even familiar. Let me illustrate : — 

"Suppose the topic for a lesson has been the Sicilian 
Expedition. There is hardly to be found a more thrill- 
ing narrative than that by the great Greek historian, 
and the reading of some pages from Thucydides may 
well occupy a half-hour. A class will hardly find in 
their course in ancient history so conspicuous an ex- 
ample of the utter disastrous failure of an important 
undertaking through the irresolution and incapacity 
of a leader. Let the teacher now tell the story of the 
Peninsular Campaign of McClellan in our late Re- 
bellion, to illustrate how history is repeated in events 
and in the characters of men. Nicias was a man of 
upright character and respectable talents, but as a 
general cautious to timidity, and in a pinch incapable 
of coming to a decision. He was one of those men 
who are always thought to be sure to do great things 
without its being possible to tell what inspires such 
confidence. He had the resources of the state at his 
back, and to support him the unflinching determina- 
tion of his countrymen to win. He was ably seconded 



194 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

by his subordinates, and he almost achieved a great 
success. But at the last moment victory slipped 
from his grasp, and the hopeless ruin of all his plans 
quickly followed. Such, at least in the opinion of 
many, was McClellan, and so ended disastrously his 
strategy of the spade. As the elder Nicias barely 
missed capturing Syracuse, so did the modern Nicias 
all but take Richmond." 1 

Herbert B. Adams says : " It would be a fine thing 
for American students, if, in studying special topics 
in the history of their own country, they would occa- 
sionally compare the phases of historic truth here 
discovered with similar phases of discovery else- 
where ; if, for example, the colonial beginnings of 
North America should be compared with Aryan mi- 
grations westward into Greece and Italy, or again 
with the colonial systems of Greece and of the Roman 
Empire, or of the English Empire to-day, which is 
continuing in South Africa and Australia and in 
Manitoba the same old spirit of enterprise which 
colonized the Atlantic seaboard of North America. 
It would interest young minds to have parallels drawn 
between English colonies, Grecian commonwealths, 
Roman provinces, the United Cantons of Switzerland, 
and the United States of Holland. To be sure, these 
various topics would require considerable study on 
the part of the teacher and pupil, but the fathers of 
the American Constitution, Madison, Hamilton, and 

1 " Method of Teaching and Studying History " (Hall), pp. 84-87. 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 1 95 

others, went over such ground in preparing the plat- 
form of our present federal government. 

" But my special plea is for the application of the 
comparative method to the use of historical literature. 
Students should learn to view history in different 
lights and from various standpoints. Instead of rely- 
ing passively upon the ipse dixit of the schoolmaster, 
or of the schoolbook, or of some one historian, pupils 
should learn to judge for themselves by comparing 
evidence. Of course some discretion should be exer- 
cised by the teacher in the case of young pupils ; 
but even children are attracted by different versions 
of the same tale or legend, and catch at new points 
of interest with all the eagerness of original investi- 
gators. The scattered elements of fact or tradition 
should be brought together as children piece together 
the scattered blocks of a map. The criterion of all 
truth, as well as of all art, is fitness. Comparison of 
different accounts of the same historic event would 
no more injure boys and girls than would a compara- 
tive study of the four Gospels. On the contrary, such 
comparisons strengthen the judgment, and give it 
greater independence and stability. In teaching his- 
tory, altogether too much stress has been laid, in 
many of our schools, upon mere form of verbal ex- 
pression in the text-book, as though historic truth 
consisted in the repetition of what some author had 
said. It would be far better for the student to read 
the same story in several different forms, and then to 



ig6 , SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

give his own version. The latter process would be 
an independent historical view based upon a variety 
of evidence. The memorizing of ' words, words,' 
prevents the assimilation of facts, and clogs the 
mental processes of reflection and private judg- 
ment." * 

In discussing the teaching of history stories in the 
fourth and fifth grades we illustrated, in various ways, 
the advantage of solving historical problems which 
arose in the stories. The opportunity for problem- 
solving is given on a much larger scale in the later 
history. When Hamilton, for example, took charge 
of the Treasury Department at the beginning of the 
first administration of Washington, he had before 
him the problem of restoring the credit and of es- 
tablishing a sound financial system for the new gov- 
ernment just starting out on its great career. The 
debts accumulated by the colonies during the Revolu- 
tion were to be provided for, a revenue secured to 
the new government by a system of duties and taxes, 
and a banking system brought into existence which 
could satisfy the needs of the government and of the 
people. It seems possible for children to understand 
the main difficulties which confronted Hamilton and 
the measures which he took to meet them. Another 
great problem was that which met Lincoln as he 
assumed the office of President in 1861. It is advis- 
able to take a survey of the difficulties and perplexities 

1 "Method of Teaching and Studying History" (Hall), pp. 137-138. 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 1 97 

which presented themselves to him, and then to get 
a clear grasp of the one simple idea as the goal toward 
which all his efforts were exerted, — the maintenance 
of the union between the states. Every difficulty 
which he overcame was a step toward the preserva- 
tion of the union. From this point of view it is 
interesting to see how he worked out his problem. 
In a somewhat similar way Grant, in his military 
career, worked a series of war problems. Some of 
these can be understood. The story of his invest- 
ment and capture of Vicksburg was a problem which 
he worked out with dogged determination. The 
Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
were attempts at the solution of a great problem ; but 
Lincoln, in his debates with Douglas in 1858, grap- 
pled with the fundamental conditions of this problem 
in such a way as to lead to the most overwhelming 
results. 

Of course historical problems become more com- 
plex as we come near to the present, and some of 
them are too difficult for children to comprehend ex- 
cept in their simple and more obvious phases. Such, 
for example, is our tariff controversy, our system of 
revenue, the gold standard, and the changes in the 
platforms of political parties. But in the solution of 
problems such as children can understand, there is 
opportunity for a very useful sort of mental disci- 
pline, namely, the cultivation of a well-balanced, fair- 
minded judgment in estimating historical questions. 



I98 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

In historical problems we may compare the pros and 
cons, the arguments on both sides of the question. 
In discussing the Civil War, for example, children 
should be taught to think the situation fairly and 
completely on both sides, the reasons which were 
convincing to the South that they were in the right, 
and likewise those of the North. It is only in this 
way that the irrepressible nature of the conflict can 
be understood. 

In the eighth grade it is expected that children's 
ideas on civics and civil government will be cleared 
up so that they may get correct notions of our gov- 
ernmental machinery. In the seventh-grade work 
we suggested that this could best be accomplished 
in connection with the history of the framing of the 
Constitution. Since the beginning of Washington's 
administration, in 1789, all of our political history 
may be regarded as a commentary on the Constitu- 
tion. At that time the whole machinery of the gov- 
ernment was put into operation, and since then we 
have been testing its practical working powers. Up 
to 1789 our history gave us a great series of acts of 
constructive statesmanship, culminating in the Con- 
stitution. We noted in seventh grade that nearly 
the whole of early American history is focussed in 
the Constitution. 

The last hundred years and more since the adop- 
tion of the Constitution has furnished a series of 
great practical tests of the strength and flexibility of 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 1 99 

the Constitution to meet and satisfy the demands of 
such a growing country as ours. It may be said that 
nearly every important controversy in our history 
since 1789 is a question in regard to the meaning of 
the Constitution, what the Constitution allows or pro- 
hibits. The Emancipation Proclamation of Lincoln 
was declared by his opponents to be unconstitutional. 
Long before the war one party claimed that a state 
had the right under the Constitution to secede ; this 
the other party denied. The question of internal 
improvements was a question as to the power of 
Congress under the Constitution. At the present 
time the power of Congress to regulate the trusts is 
disputed in the same way. The history, therefore, 
of the United States consists of a series of illustra- 
tions of the meaning and intent of the Constitution, 
as determined by the greatest events in our history. 
If children are to be taught by concrete examples, 
the study of our history is by all odds the best means 
of understanding civics. The Committee of Seven 
says : 1 " We do not think that this preparation is sat- 
isfactorily acquired merely through the study of civil 
government, which, strictly construed, has to do only 
with existing institutions. The pupil should see the 
growth of the institutions which surround him; he 
should see the work of men ; he should study the 
living, concrete facts of the past ; he should know of 

1 Report of the Committee of Seven. "The Study of History in 
Schools," pp. 18, 19. 



200 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

the nations that have risen and fallen ; he should 
see tyranny, vulgarity, greed, benevolence, patriotism, 
self-sacrifice, brought out in the lives and works of 
men. So strongly has this very thought taken hold 
of writers of civil government, that they no longer 
content themselves with a description of the govern- 
ment as it is, but describe at considerable length the 
origin and development of the institutions of which 
they speak." 

There seems to be no means of rendering historical 
ideas so potent, so effective and contagious in their 
influence upon young people as biography. We are 
all hero-worshippers, and children more than adults. 
In eighth grade also it will reward us to select three 
of the best typical biographies and base a large share 
of the year's work upon their study. We suggest 
the three following biographies: — 

John Quincy Adams. 

Daniel Webster. 

Abraham Lincoln. 

The public life of John Quincy Adams almost 
covers the first fifty years of the constitutional 
period, and, while he is identified with all the impor- 
tant problems of those times, his leadership of the 
antislavery forces during the last seventeen years 
in Congress brings him close to the great struggle 
which culminated in 1861. Daniel Webster stands 
out as the chief defender of the Constitution and 
expounder of our form of government. His early 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 201 

life is of much interest, and his speeches may be 
much read in seventh and eighth grades, and in the 
high school. Lincoln was the untried citizen, who, 
being placed at the head of national interests at the 
moment of supreme weakness and danger, calmly 
and patiently met the situation in the spirit of 
wisdom and patriotism, and the country was saved. 
These men will be closely studied and their positions 
on public questions compared with those of other 
leaders. There are also several other biographies 
which should be looked into as far as time will 
permit. Hamilton, Jefferson, Calhoun, Clay, Fulton, 
Field, Morse, Garrison, Stephens, and Sumner. 
American history is surely not lacking in culture 
materials if we will only select the best and use it 
well. 

In view of the remarkable inventions and applica- 
tions of modern science in the last hundred years, it 
is appropriate that the biographies of some of the 
inventors should be studied and the practical effect 
of these inventions upon commerce, industry, and 
the comforts of life explained. In a new and rapidly 
developing country such as ours the effects of scien- 
tific invention have been more quickly and power- 
fully felt than in other slower-moving countries. So 
great have been the changes wrought by the applica- 
tion of science to life that the achievements of our 
country in this direction have largely monopolized 
the energies of our people, so that political and gov- 



202 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

ernmental affairs have almost taken a second place. 
Certain it is that to understand our present society 
in even a few of its leading aspects we must gain 
insight into the historical forces which have come 
down to us out of the past, and into those applica- 
tions of natural science which have worked their way 
into every corner and crevice of our lives. 

A thoughtful teacher in eighth-grade history will 
make frequent use of local politics and familiar 
neighborhood experiences in illustrating difficult 
topics. In connection with banking a careful study 
of a local national bank, number of directors, capital 
required, the national banking act under which it 
operates, and its service to the community, as well as 
profit to the stockholders, will throw new light upon 
some very difficult questions in history. In this case 
the teacher needs to make a practical study of the 
subject, talk with the bank officers, read the banking 
act, and become acquainted with the actual sources 
of profit in the banking business. Herbert B. Adams 
says : " From a variety of considerations, the writer 
is persuaded that one of the best introductions to 
history that can be given in American high schools, 
and even in those of lower grade, is through a study 
of the community in which the school is placed. 
History, like charity, begins at home. The best 
American citizens are those who mind home affairs 
and local interests. ' That man's the best cosmopo- 
lite who loves his native country best.' The best 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 203 

students of universal history are those who know 
some one country or some one subject well. The 
family, the hamlet, the neighborhood, the community, 
the parish, the village, town, city, county, and state 
are historically the ways by which men have 
approached national and international life. It is a 
preliminary study of the geography of Frankfort-on- 
the-Main that led Carl Ritter to study the physical 
structure of Europe and Asia, and thus to establish 
the new science of comparative geography. He 
says, ' Whoever has wandered through the valleys 
and woods, and over the hills and mountains of his 
own state, will be the one capable of following a 
Herodotus in his wanderings over the globe.' 

"If young Americans are to appreciate their reli- 
gious and political inheritance, they must learn its 
intrinsic worth. They must be taught to appreciate 
the common and lowly things around them. They 
should grow up with as profound respect for town 
and parish meetings as for the state legislature, not 
to speak of the Houses of Congress. They should 
recognize the majesty of the law even in the parish 
constable as well as in the high sheriff of the county. 
They should look on selectmen as the head men of 
the town, the survival of the old English reeve and 
four best men of the parish. They should be taught 
to see in the town common or village green a sur- 
vival of that primitive institution of land-community 
upon which town and state are based. They should 



204 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

be taught the meaning of town and family names; 
how the word ' town ' means, primarily, a place 
hedged in for purposes of defence ; how the picket- 
fences around home and house-lot are but a survival 
of the primitive town idea ; how home, hamlet, and 
town live on together in a name like Hampton, or 
Home-town. They should investigate the most ordi- 
nary things, for these are often the most archaic. 
For example, there is the village pound, which Sir 
Henry Maine says is one of the most ancient institu- 
tions, ' older than the king's bench, and probably 
older than the kingdom.' There, too, are the field- 
drivers (still known in New England), the ancient 
town herdsmen, village shepherds, and village swine- 
herds (once common in this country), who serve to 
connect our historic life with the earliest pastoral 
beginnings of mankind." 1 

Richard T. Ely says : " The writer has indeed 
found it possible to entertain a schoolroom full of 
boys, varying in age from five to sixteen, with a dis- 
course on two definitions of capital, — one taken 
from a celebrated writer, and the other from an 
obscure pamphlet on socialism by a radical reformer. 
As the school was in the country, illustrations were 
taken from farm life, such as corn-planting and 
harvesting, and from the outdoor sports of the boys, 
such as trapping for rabbits. Some common, familiar 

1 Pedagogical Library, Ed. by G. Stanley Hall. Vol. I, " Methods of 
Teaching History," pp. 125, 128, and 129. 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 205 

fact was kept constantly in the foreground, and thus 
the attention of the youngest lad was held. 

" Perhaps money is as good a subject as any for 
an opening lecture to bright boys and girls, and the 
writer would recommend a course of procedure some- 
what like this : Take into the classroom the different 
kinds of money in use in the United States, both 
paper and coin, and ask questions about them, and 
talk about them. Show the class a greenback and 
a national bank-note, and ask them to tell you the 
difference. After they have all failed, as they prob- 
ably will, ask some one to read what is engraved on 
the notes, after which the difference may be further 
elucidated. Silver and gold certificates may be dis- 
cussed, and the distinction made clear between the bul- 
lion and face value of the five-cent piece, etc. Other 
talks, interesting and familiar, about alloys, the ex- 
tent to which pennies and small coins are legal 
tender, the character of the trade-dollar, etc., will 
occupy several hours, and delight the class. The 
origin of money is a topic which will instruct and 
entertain the scholars for an hour. Various kinds 
of money should be mentioned ; and it is possible 
you may find examples of curious kinds of money in 
some hill town not very remote, e.g., eggs, and you 
are very likely to find several kinds of money in use 
among the boys and girls, e.g., pins. In one board- 
ing-school, near Baltimore, bits of butter, served the 
boys at meals in quantities less than they desired, 



206 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

passed as money, and quite an extensive use of bills 
and orders, ' negotiable instruments,' was established. 

" Taxes can be studied in the town or village. The 
pupils can learn from their fathers what the taxes 
are, how they are assessed and collected, and what 
part of the revenues is used for village purposes, 
what part for schools, what part for the county, and 
what part for the state. In any village it cannot 
be difficult to induce one of the assessors to explain 
before the class in political economy the principles 
upon which he does his work. All the pupils can 
then write essays about taxation in the said place, 
and perhaps one of them will be able to write a 
financial history of the town." 1 

One of the questions which is sure to command 
the thoughtful attention of the teachers in eighth- 
grade history, is, what use to make of books. We 
may sum it up briefly as follows : A good text-book 
containing an outline of the chief facts should furnish 
the general framework for the reception of fuller 
materials from other sources. A good text-book is 
invaluable as a guide through the labyrinth of his- 
torical wanderings, but teachers must be on guard 
not to be enslaved to the narrow limits of thought in 
even the best text-book. In speaking of history 
instruction in the German Gymnasium with boys 
about twelve years of age, C. K. Adams says : "The 

1 Pedagogical Library, Ed. by G. Stanley Hall. Vol. I, " Methods of 
Teaching History," pp. 63, 64, and 66. 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 207 

system keeps clearly in view the fact that the pupil 
is not yet ready for that development which results 
from hard study. It never ceases to remember that 
at least three-fourths of all the time spent by a boy 
of twelve in trying to learn a hard lesson out of a 
book is time thrown away. Perhaps one-fourth of the 
time is devoted to more or less desperate and con- 
scientious effort ; but the large remaining portion 
is dawdled away in thinking of the last game of ball 
and longing for the next game of tag." 

In the assignment of the lesson the teacher should 
pave the way for a more intelligent and interesting 
study of the book. W. C. Collar says : " First read 
over the lesson assigned for the next day, or portions 
of it, with the class ; indicate briefly what is of 
greater and what of less importance ; make such ex- 
planations as are needful for an intelligent compre- 
hension of the text, and indicate what dates should 
be committed to memory." 

There is also need of a few books which give a 
complete discussion to important topics. A small 
number of select biographies belongs also to this 
group. For reference books the source materials, 
such as those furnished in Hart's " American His- 
tory told by Contemporaries," and a few of the histori- 
cal readers, can be used. The larger histories can be 
consulted upon special topics in the libraries. The 
great forensic orations of Clay, Webster, Sumner, 
and Benton may serve as excellent reading matter 



208 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

for some children in each class. In the assignment 
of reference readings, however, a small amount of 
definite reading, carefully chosen, should be assigned 
as a part of the required work, while the range of 
optional readings for those who have time and abil- 
ity should be quite extensive. 

Every teacher must settle the question how many 
dates to require of the children. It is admitted that 
chronology offers a necessary framework within 
which to arrange the materials of history. The im- 
portant question is, To what extent does the mem- 
orizing of dates serve to give a firmer grasp and a 
clearer understanding of essential ideas in history ? 
It seems to me that a very small number of dates 
will answer every purpose. The schoolmaster and 
the programme-maker are generally disposed to multi- 
ply chronological tables. The following statement by 
J. E. Lloyd, of Wales, seems to strike the golden 
mean. " I cannot say that I attach much importance 
myself to the storing of the memory even with dates 
and genealogical tables. No doubt it is convenient 
to the historian to have such matters at his fingers' 
ends, but the power of getting them up by heart is 
something very different from the aptitude for his- 
tory, and the energies devoted to the task might in 
most cases, I think, be more profitably employed in 
other directions. A few leading dates, which serve 
to articulate the field of study, may be learnt with 
advantage, but even here I am inclined to believe 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 2CX) 

that more may be done by means of chronological 
charts, in which each century occupies an equal 
space, than by simple tables of dates." 1 

W. C. Collar says : " A word may be here most 
conveniently said on the subject of chronology. A 
few dates should be well fixed in the memory ; they 
should be carefully selected by the teacher, and 
some explanation given of their significance. But ' a 
few,' you will say, is a little indefinite. Of course, 
opinions will differ as to the number of indispen- 
sable dates in any history, though there might be a 
general assent to the principle of requiring the pupil 
to commit as few as possible. Of the 250 dates 
given in Smith's ' Smaller History of Greece,' I in- 
sist on fifteen, and I think the number might be re- 
duced to ten. But if learners are properly taught, 
they will, of course, be able to determine a great many 
dates approximately. For example, a boy who has 
clearly understood the cause, purpose, and results of 
the Confederacy of Delos could not possibly place it 
in a time far wrong, with reference to great events 
before and after it ; and a single important date in 
the century well remembered would enable him to 
fix very nearly its absolute time." 2 

In discussing the work of previous grades we have 

1 Frederick Spencer, Ed. " Chapters on the Aims and Practice of 
Teaching," p. 150. 

2 Pedagogical Library, Ed. by G. Stanley Hall. Vol. I, - Methods 
of Teaching History," pp. 81, 82. 

P 



210 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

dealt at length with the qualifications of teachers. 
In the eighth grade the history teacher should be- 
come, as far as circumstances permit, an expert in 
historical knowledge, well acquainted with the most 
helpful and stimulating books and versatile in method. 
This matter is well summed up in the Report of the 
Committee of Seven, as follows : " The first requisite 
for good teaching is knowledge. The teacher's duty 
is not simply to see that the pupils have learned a 
given amount, or that they understand the lesson, as 
one uses the word ' understand ' when speaking of a 
demonstration in geometry or an experiment in 
physics. His task is to bring out the real meaning 
and import of what is learned by adding illustrations, 
showing causes, and suggesting results, to select the 
important and to pass over the unimportant, to em- 
phasize essentials, and to enlarge upon significant 
facts and ideas. A person with a meagre informa- 
tion cannot have a wide outlook ; he cannot see the 
relative importance of things unless he actually 
knows them in their relations. 

" But knowledge of facts alone is not enough. In 
historical work pupils and teacher are constantly 
engaged in using books. These books the teacher 
must know ; he must know the periods which they 
cover, their methods of treatment, their trustworthi- 
ness, their attractiveness, their general utility for the 
purposes of young students. He must have skill in 
handling books and in gleaning from them the infor- 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 211 

mation which he is seeking, because it is just this 
skill which he is trying to give to his pupils. No one 
would seriously think of putting in charge of a class 
in manual training a person who had himself never 
shoved a plane or measured a board. To turn over a 
class in history to be instructed by a person who is not 
acquainted with the tools of the trade and has had no 
practice in manipulating them, is an equal absurdity. 
" A successful teacher must have more than mere 
accurate information and professional knowledge. 
He needs to have a living sympathy with the tale 
which he tells. He must know how to bring out the 
dramatic aspects of his story. He must know how 
to awaken the interest and attention of his pupils, 
who will always be alert and eager if they feel that 
they are learning of the actual struggles and con- 
flicts of men who had like passions with ourselves. 
Though stores of dates and names must be at the 
teacher's command, these are not enough. He must 
have had his own imagination fired and his enthusiasm 
kindled ; he must know the sources of historical 
knowledge and the springs of historical inspiration ; 
he must know the literature of history and be able to 
direct his pupils to stirring passages in the great his- 
torical masters ; he must know how to illumine and 
brighten the page by readings from literature and 
by illustrations from art." 1 

1 Report of the Committee of Seven, " The Study of History in 
Schools," pp. 115, 116. 



212 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

The eighth-grade teacher has occasion frequently 
to use historical maps. The westward movement of 
the frontier; the admission of new states into the 
Union, especially in connection with the extension of 
slavery ; the great overland routes across the conti- 
nent, both before and since the railroads ; the distri- 
bution of races in North America ; the gradual 
extinction of the Indian title ; the geographical 
aspect of political parties ; the location of large trade 
routes and commercial centres ; the outlining of mili- 
tary campaigns ; the successive additions of terri- 
tory ; and many other topics in eighth grade can 
be clearly grasped only by a varied and liberal use of 
maps. 

In many cases blackboard sketches and diagrams 
made by both teacher and pupils are needed. In 
the plans of battles and campaigns and in blocking 
out statistical comparisons, the use of the blackboard 
is most helpful. Outline maps such as those pub- 
lished by D. C. Heath & Co., Rand, McNally & Co., 
and those of the United States Geological Survey 
can be used by the pupils in working out boundaries 
of new territories, populations, physiographic regions, 
trade routes, the sectional character of elections, 
political parties, etc. 

Well-selected and appropriate pictures are also of 
great value in giving definiteness and vividness to 
historical ideas. Illustrations, pictures, and maps 
are always useful, even to mature students, in giving 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 21 3 

reality and clearness to historical life. The Commit- 
tee of Seven enforces this point as follows : " Besides 
the sources which have come down to us in written 
form and are reproduced upon the printed page, 
there is another important class of historical materi- 
als which is of great assistance in giving reality to 
the past, — namely, actual, concrete remains, such as 
exist in the form of old buildings, monuments, and 
the contents of museums. Many schools have direct 
access to interesting survivals of this sort, while the 
various processes of pictorial reproduction have 
placed abundant stores of such material within reach 
of every teacher. The excellent illustrations of 
many recent text-books may be supplemented by 
special albums, such as are used in French and Ger- 
man schools, and by the school's own collection of 
engravings and photographs cut from magazines or 
procured from dealers. Some schools have also pro- 
vided sets of lantern slides. Of course in order to 
entitle such illustrations to serious use and to the 
rank of historical sources they must be real pic- 
tures, — actual reproductions of buildings, statues, 
contemporary portraits, views of places, etc., — and 
not inventions of modern artists. It is easy to make 
too much of illustrations, and thus reduce history 
to a series of dissolving views ; but many excellent 
teachers have found the judicious use of pictures 
helpful in the extreme, not merely in arousing inter- 
est in the picturesque aspects of the subject, but in 



214 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

cultivating the historical imagination and in giving 
definiteness and vividness to the pupil's general 
ideas of the past. An appeal to the eye is of great 
assistance in bringing out the characteristic differ- 
ences between past and present, and thus in check- 
ing that tendency to project the present into the past 
which is one of the most serious obstacles to sound 
views of history. The chief danger in the use of 
pictorial material lies in giving too much of it instead 
of dwelling at length on a few carefully chosen 
examples." 1 

Having outlined the course of study in the com- 
mon school through the eighth grade, we may con- 
clude the discussion by surveying again the general 
question of selecting the topics and laying out the 
history course on the basis of concentric circles. 
This plan purposes to run over the general course 
of our history about three times in the grades below 
the high school, each succeeding review purport- 
ing to give a broader and deeper knowledge of the 
chief events and ideas. 

In its favor it has the well-established practice 
of some of the best schools in this country and in 
Europe. Indeed, it is claimed that in Germany this 
plan has been followed with such entire success in 
the best schools of the world that it is the only one 
worth serious consideration. Psychology and child- 

1 Report of the Committee of Seven, " The Study of History in 
Schools," pp. 108, 109. 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 21 5 

nature have also been identified with this scheme as 
if they had been born and bred together. But we 
should not be surprised by this coincidence, for any 
one who has a scheme can generally find in psychol- 
ogy friendly shelter and protection. In fact, we 
shall be found later defending our own scheme on 
psychological grounds. 

The opportunity for frequent review of important 
topics and for that thoroughness to which the school- 
master is at least theoretically espoused, gives this 
theory a very strong practical hold. The drill- 
master has a special fondness for this kind of a 
scheme, and we confess to a strong leaning toward 
this weakness of the schoolmaster. This plan of the 
concentric circles, with its well-arranged review sys- 
tem, has so long held the right of way in schools, and 
with the theorizers too, that its opponents will not 
easily turn the schoolmasters and their flocks into a 
new path. 

But we will at least take a glimpse of the other 
side of the question. 

To educate children through history is to do some- 
thing more than to fix facts in mind by repetition. 
If the materials are properly selected for each grade, 
so that children can appreciate them and feel their 
meaning, there is a sense in which they relive his- 
tory. Now, to get historical ideas into a child's life 
is much more significant than to get facts into his 
memory. It is a matter of wisdom to select for e;u li 



2l6 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

grade what the children can thoroughly appreciate 
and assimilate. Such knowledge has a much more 
wholesome effect both upon the intellect and upon 
the heart, than knowledge that must be dinned into 
his mind by later repetitions before he gets it fixed. 
The reason, perhaps, why this repeated memory 
cram of the concentric circles, this more or less me- 
chanical reiteration by successive reviews is deemed 
necessary, is that the facts never have been properly 
assimilated, and a forcing process of reviews is the 
only thing that can pound them into the memory. 
The failure to select history materials suitable to the 
true life and spirit of children compels the teacher 
to resort to a system of routine drills to make up the 
deficiency. The schoolmaster prides himself upon 
his rigorous review drills, he ought to be ashamed 
of himself for making them necessary. 

The materials used in each grade should be such 
as the children can master and assimilate as they go 
along. It thus enters as a daily nutrient into their 
lives, building up and strengthening character and 
disposition. It is a crude and thoughtless method to 
lay out a long period of history and say, — let the 
children run over this once and pick up what they 
can, let them go over it a second time and gather 
a little more, and the third time the same. Such a 
plan goes at the problem blindly, dodging the chief 
pedagogical problems, such as the nature and fitness 
of different historical materials and the adaptation of 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 2\J 

those selected to the marked stages and changes in 
childhood and youth. 

The use of biographies in the first series of the 
concentric circles is by no means a solution of these 
difficulties. To run over the whole of European and 
American history in brief biographies as a primary 
course, shows no pedagogical discrimination. Biog- 
raphies differ as much in their nature and content, 
in their simplicity or difficulty, as do other kinds of 
historical material. To put such widely different 
biographies as those of Leonidas, Pericles, Horatius, 
Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Arminius, Frederick the 
Great, Bismarck, Richelieu, Alfred, Cromwell, Glad- 
stone, Bruce, Gustavus Adolphus, John Smith, and 
Robert Lee into one series for children in fourth and 
fifth years, is an astonishing piece of pedagogical 
freakishness. They do not belong together at all. 
Horatius and Alfred and John Smith would well 
consort together as similar in quality and simplicity. 
But Pericles and Frederick the Great and Bismarck 
and Gladstone are totally different in their spirit and 
content, and belong to a wholly different era both in 
history and child life, if, indeed, they belong to child- 
life at all. Why historians should ignore these stu- 
pendous differences and dump such heterogeneous 
and ill-assorted materials into one period of child- 
hood is incomprehensible. It is quite clear that we 
need choice biographies in every year of school life, 
and even in high school and college. But nothing 



218 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

needs to be selected with greater care than the biogra- 
phies suitable to children and youth in the successive 
periods of school life. To put Boone in with Glad- 
stone is as incongruous as putting primary children 
into high school classes. We need the enlivening 
and vivifying influence of appropriate biographies 
in each year of school life, as a means of illustrating 
and typifying the predominant ideas of different 
epochs. 

The theory of the culture of epochs, — that is, of 
the correspondence between race-growth and child- 
growth, — whatever it may be worth, does not support 
the idea of the concentric circles. A given culture 
epoch has been often repeated in history, but not in 
the same individual or nationality. As children grow 
they are expected to grow out of one age into another. 
Just to the extent to which a child really lives and 
experiences a period of history, he should outgrow it 
and never be compelled to become immersed in it 
again. It will reecho in his later experience, but the 
man should never become a boy again in the full 
sense. 

The assumption that the experience of Germany on 
this point is conclusive proves too much. The most 
respectable progressive school in Germany, that of 
Herbart and his disciples, has long since abandoned 
the idea of concentric circles in history, has for years 
laid out a school course and followed a wholly differ- 
ent principle, and has given the most vigorous reasons 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 219 

for doing so. The traditional course of the German 
classical gymnasium is the one always cited as an 
example of the concentric circles. Of all the courses 
in the world this is the one perhaps least adapted to 
the common schools of America. For ten years, 
from the age of eight to eighteen, the boys in a Ger- 
man gymnasium are kept solidly at work upon the 
original Latin and Greek classics. The common 
schools of this country have absolutely nothing of 
this, and it is difficult to see why a history course 
based upon that of the German gymnasium should 
be foisted upon the children of this country. Even 
our high schools which prepare for college have 
abandoned the course of the German classical gym- 
nasium, and for our common school, which has wholly 
abandoned the classical languages, and the course of 
study based upon them, it is an anachronism to re- 
quire the whole history of Europe, and even of the 
world, as a preface to American history in the seventh 
and eighth grades. The real difficulty with such a 
course is that it is made out almost wholly from the 
historian's view of the chronological and causal con- 
nection of events, and with almost no regard for 
modern ideas of child-development, that is, of the 
motives and activities which predominate in the 
period of childhood up to the age of fourteen. 

The points of defence of the course of study in 
history offered in this book (as against the plan of 
concentric circles) may be briefly put as follows : — 



220 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

i. The intention is to select in each grade only 
those topics which a child at that age can thoroughly 
appreciate, enjoy, and assimilate, in short, — experi- 
ence, — and thus receive the essence of its educative 
influence. 

2. Each of these topics should be a centre for the 
organization of a considerable body of knowledge, 
and a type which will bring it into fruitful comparison 
with earlier and later topics. 

3. Thoroughness in knowledge is provided for 

(a) by a full, descriptive, and interesting treatment of 
each topic the first time it is taken up, tracing out its 
significant relations, and focussing the facts in such a 
way as to show up its real meaning and importance. 
The complete mastery of the topic, as tested by 
reproductions by the pupils, is possible because the 
subject is within the range of their understanding ; 

(b) by frequent comparisons of later topics with simi- 
lar or contrasted topics treated earlier in the course. 
Many illustrations of these reviews by comparison 
have been given in all grades ; (c) by reaching back 
constantly into earlier history, previously studied, for 
the causes and explanations of later developments. 
This involves, in a more direct way, the excellent 
results which are supposed to come from the review 
system of the concentric circles ; because it brings 
the review of topics into immediate relation to later 
events needing such explanation; (d) the concentra- 
tion of many of the reading lessons upon the master- 



EIGHTH-GRADE HISTORY 221 

pieces of historical literature throws an intense side- 
light upon history. In many cases the impressions 
are more powerful and lasting than those of history 
itself. This brings about a striking review of histori- 
cal events from new standpoints. In a similar way 
geography lessons, if properly selected and treated, 
are constantly throwing a new light upon history; 
{e) the collateral readings from source-books, histori- 
cal readers, large histories, historical novels and litera- 
ture, such as the teacher should encourage children 
to read, will deepen the impressions of great events 
and ideas in history. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE CORRELATION OF HISTORY WITH OTHER STUDIES 

It is easy to see that history is bound up with 
other studies in a variety of close connections. 
Sometimes history throws much light on geography 
or literature, or the latter studies contribute valuable 
aid to history. 

When once the important and even vital connection 
between history and other studies is clearly seen, 
there is real difficulty in drawing accurately the 
line of separation between them. For example, 
geography and history are so closely bound together 
that in teaching either one of them the other must 
be considered. If we had no such independent 
study as geography, the geographical knowledge 
necessary to the understanding of a good course in 
history would give us a tolerably complete acquaint- 
ance with political geography. If history and geog- 
raphy were studied together, as indicated in the 
following passage from Carlyle, children might gain 
almost as much geographical knowledge as they do 
at present, without the independent study of geog- 
raphy. Carlyle says : " History is evidently the 



CORRELATION WITH OTHER STUDIES 223 

grand subject a student will take to. Never read any 
such book without a map beside you; endeavor to seek 
out every place the author names, and get a clear 
idea of the ground you are on ; without this you can 
never understand him, much less remember him." 

W. C. Collar says, " Historical instruction without 
the constant accompaniment of geography has no 
solid foundation, is all in the air." 

Hinsdale says : " The earth is most interesting 
when considered in relation to its human uses. 
Geography provides man his sphere of life, and 
then finds its highest interest, not in its deserts or 
crags, its glaciers or canons, but in its human 
elements. Political geography is nothing but a 
form of applied history." 1 

Miss Salmon says : " The dependence of history 
upon the physical character of a country is evident 
when it is seen to what extent these conditions have 
determined those on which history is based. The 
beginnings of nations have been influenced by the 
existence of broad, fertile valleys, while very high or 
very broad mountain chains have, outside of America, 
decided national frontiers. The necessity for indi- 
vidual protection determined the sights of the hill for- 
tress-towns of ancient Greece and of mediaeval Italy, 
as protection again has led to the choice of sites 
partly encircled by water, as Durham, Venice, Bern, 
and Constantinople ; or for strength, as the towns 
1 "How to Study and Teach History" (Hinsdale). 



224 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

of Grenoble and Belfort ; commercial reasons have 
placed towns at the junction of two rivers, as Mainz, 
Coblenz, and Lyons, or near the mouths of rivers, 
as Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Havre. Trade 
routes, military operations, terms of treaties, have 
all been conditioned by geographical features." l 

Not only the careful study of maps and historical 
charts for the fixing of the geographical stage of 
action is necessary, but the free sketching of maps 
on the blackboard by both teacher and pupil is the 
best means of giving clearness and perfect compre- 
hension. This kind of geography is, if anything, 
better than political geography studied by itself, 
because it is an application of geographical knowl- 
edge to human necessities and a discovery of the 
reasons for the facts. 

Hinsdale says further : " There are still other 
reasons for emphasizing geography in connection 
with history. Historical events that are not located 
by the pupil are neither understood nor remembered. 
History that is read without due attention to its 
theatre is too much like an imaginary account of 
similar transactions in the moon." 

And again : " Careful study of a good map is the 
next best thing to visiting a historical locality in per- 
son. To a certain extent geography and history are 
but one study ; and the effort now made in schools 
to study them in close connection is worthy of all 

1 " Some Principles in the Teaching of History." 



CORRELATION WITH OTHER STUDIES 225 

praise. Thus the memory is wholly dependent upon 
the associating activities of the mind. Without 
them nothing could be retained and nothing could 
be learned. Besides, contiguity of space is one of 
the most powerful of these activities. In view of 
these facts we need not enlarge upon the importance 
of the place-element in history." 

On the other hand, history contributes to a vital 
interest in geography. It would hardly be an ex- 
travagant statement to say that the places of greatest 
geographical interest in the world are those that have 
been made memorable by historical events, such as 
Bunker Hill, Marathon, Gettysburg, the city of 
Athens, of Jerusalem, of London, of Boston, etc. 
What interest should we have in the geography of 
Scotland apart from its historical literature ? What 
a glow of interest is thrown around the geography 
of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River by the 
canoe voyages of La Salle, Hennepin, Marquette, 
and Joliet ! Starved Rock is the most interesting 
geographical feature in Illinois. In New York 
State, the Hudson, Lake Champlain, and the central 
lake region have a hundred lively historical associa- 
tions. On this point Hinsdale says : " Men toil and 
suffer to visit countries and places having little liv- 
ing interest. The Holy Places attract pilgrims 
because they have been made holy by devoted and 
self-denying lives. Moses is greater than Mount 
Sinai, Abraham than Palestine, Jesus than the Lake 

Q 



226 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

of Galilee. It is very true that back of the event 
lie causes, thoughts, feelings, and activities ; but 
there is a certain tendency to look for them, and 
also the event itself, in the locality." 

The yoking together of history and geography in 
the same lesson in history need not produce any 
confusion of mind as to which is history and which 
is geography. The lesson is primarily a history 
lesson, and the standpoint from which the geographi- 
cal facts are viewed is historical. So long as the con- 
trolling historical idea of the lesson is kept clearly in 
mind, it makes no difference how many tributary 
geographical facts are drawn into the treatment. 

In a geographical lesson, likewise, historical facts 
may be drawn in so long as they contribute to the 
better understanding of the chief geographical topic. 
Confusion arises only when the teacher is unable to 
keep a controlling idea or standpoint clearly in mind, 
but instead, shifts back and forth between history and 
geography. 

History and literature are not less closely bound 
together and merged into one than history and geog- 
raphy. Many of the best products of historical 
literature are among the best sources of history. The 
Homeric poems are not historical in the strict modern 
sense, and yet no one would be disposed to deny the 
overwhelming influence which they exerted upon the 
strictly historical period of Greek life. It seems un- 
questionable also that we have in Homer the best 



CORRELATION WITH OTHER STUDIES 227 

descriptions of early Greek customs and ideas ever 
given to the world. The early ballads of European 
countries are historical in a similar degree, and are 
extremely pleasing to children. W. C. Collar says : 
" But for awakening the sympathies and moving the 
imagination of children, I attach greater importance 
to the aid to be derived from imaginative literature, 
particularly poetry. Poetry gives life and reality to 
history. History describes, poetry paints; and this 
is often true of poetry that ranks neither in the first 
nor in the second order. For years I have found it 
very useful to have Macaulay's ' Lays of Ancient 
Rome ' read in connection with the mythical part of 
Roman history. There is nothing like the magic 
charm, whether of sublimity or pathos, that poetry 
lends to historical events, persons, and places. Who 
can read Milman's magnificent ode on the Israelites 
crossing the Red Sea without a consciousness, if he 
reflects upon it, of a fresh and more vivid realization 
of a scene familiar to his imagination from childhood ? 
How Scott's beautiful hymn, sung by Rebecca in 
' Ivanhoe,' makes us see, as the Scripture narrative 
never did, the slow onward toiling of the Israelites 
through the rocky fastnesses and over the sandy 
deserts of Arabia, guided by the pillar of cloud by 
day and the pillar of fire by night!" 1 

Nearly all the great epic poems, such as the 

1 " Methods of Teaching and Studying History " (Hall). 



228 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

" >Eneid," the " Iliad," and " Odyssey," the story of 
Siegfried, the Arthurian legends and tales of chivalry, 
have a distinct historical side, no matter how mythical 
they may appear. 

Some of the longer poems most commonly used in 
the schools, such as " Marmion," " The Lady of the 
Lake," " Courtship of Miles Standish," and " Evange- 
line," and a few of the plays of Shakespeare, such as 
"Julius Caesar" and "Henry VIII," are still more 
explicitly historical. This poetical material is exten- 
sively used in the regular reading exercises and gives 
greater intensity and vividness to historical events. 
The orations of the great speakers of the world, such 
as those of Webster, Burke, Cicero, and Demosthenes, 
are wholly historical, and are among the most interest- 
ing and powerful expressions of historical scenes. 
Quite a number of these are used in the grammar 
and high schools. Again, historical novels, such as 
Scott's "The Talisman," Thackeray's "The Vir- 
ginians," and Cooper's "The Spy," are very signifi- 
cant in their bearings on history. Even many of the 
most famous essays, as those of Macaulay, Carlyle, 
Motley, Emerson, Lowell, and Schurz, are discus- 
sions of purely historical biographies or events. 
Many of the best prose stories used in the grades 
are historical, such as Hawthorne's " Grandfather's 
Chair," Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather," Haw- 
thorne's " Biographical Stories," some of Lamb's 
" Tales of Shakespeare," Plutarch's " Lives," etc. 



CORRELATION WITH OTHER STUDIES 229 

It is possible in this way barely to suggest the 
numerous and vital relations between history on 
the one side, and readings from good literature on 
the other. 

In all the preceding chapters which discuss the 
value of historical materials in the grades from the 
fourth through the eighth, we have given scores 
of illustrations of this close connection between 
history and literature. While each study maintains 
its separateness, the powerful side-lights thrown 
upon history by literature and reading exercises are 
such as to greatly reenforce and even to vitalize 
the lessons of history. Our American literature 
abounds in the most striking illustrations of the 
poetic illumination of historical events. The Bible 
is the great standard illustration of the mingling of 
the historical and poetic elements, and for this reason, 
in large part, the Bible has had a marvellous influence 
upon the world. In a similar way it would not be 
difficult to make up a bible of American history and 
literature, and our course of study should contain 
just this. 

The common schools can greatly improve their 
course of study and much increase the educative 
influence of history and literature by a systematic 
plan of emphasizing these relations between the three 
studies, history, geography, and reading. 

In the course of study to which one chapter of this 
volume is given we may see an effort to run the lines 



230 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

of history, geography, and literature parallel. This 
parallelism may be observed in the following points : 
In the earliest historical and geographical studies, 
the home neighborhood is taken first, and from this 
point as a radiating centre both geography and 
history are traced outward to the surrounding states 
and to America as a whole ; afterwards to Europe 
and other continents. In the fourth and fifth grades 
the stories of the pioneers of America and of the 
ocean explorers deal with precisely the same geograph- 
ical regions which are studied in the geography of 
the same grades. There is not an important river 
valley or mountain region in the United States which 
is not made interesting to children by one or more 
of the famous pioneer stories, while British America, 
Mexico, and the West Indies are not behind in the 
fame of early explorers. This makes the geography 
and history of North America the basis of study for 
two full years in the intermediate grades. This plan 
of running the two studies parallel introduces scores 
of interesting and instructive relationships between 
them. Almost every lesson in history is a lesson in 
geography in North America, and scarcely a topic in 
geography can be handled without involving impor- 
tant facts in history. In the reading lessons many of 
the choicest American poems, ballads, and stories, 
having a strong historical and geographical setting, 
are also studied, such as Irving's " Rip Van Winkle," 
"Sleepy Hollow," and "Dolph Heiliger"; "The 



CORRELATION WITH OTHER STUDIES 23 1 

Great Stone Face," "Hiawatha," "Sheridan's Ride," 
"Evangeline," "The Oregon Trail," Franklin's 
Autobiography, Schurz's " Essay on Lincoln," Whit- 
tier's " Songs of Labor," " Cobbler Keezar's Vision," 
"The Merrimack," "Mabel Martin," and "Snow- 
Bound," and many others. It is difficult to see why 
any objection should be made to such a correlation 
of studies, while the advantages springing from it are 
of the highest value. 

We now pass on to the geography of Europe. For 
three or four years previous to this many of the most 
interesting stories of European history and literature 
have been studied and geographically located, 
such as David, King Alfred, Tell, Bruce, Wallace, 
many of the Greek and Roman stories, Siegfried, 
Roland, Hannibal, Caesar, etc. The great explorers, 
Columbus, Hudson, Magellan, John Smith, Raleigh, 
and others have been studied in their European 
surroundings, and have thus created greater interest 
in those countries. According to our course of study 
in the first part of sixth grade we take the stories 
of the Persian wars in Greece, and of the conflict 
between Rome and Carthage. These historical stories 
throw a charm around the Mediterranean countries 
which deepens the effect of the old myths and gives 
a strong foothold for the later geography of southern 
Europe. 

During the sixth year we continue the history of 
the colonial settlements in North America made by 



232 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

the English, Dutch, French, Scotch, Swedes, and 
Germans, and have frequent occasion to visit the 
countries of Europe from which these emigrants 
came. It is easy to see that Europe becomes a very 
important centre for geographical, historical, and 
literary study, and that the natural and vital connec- 
tions between the three studies are so numerous as 
not only to produce a lively interest in all of them, 
but each study becomes a means of constantly 
reviewing and interpreting the facts of the other two. 
In the eighth grade the geography of other coun- 
tries, such as Asia, Africa, South America, the great 
oceans and the world-whole are studied somewhat in 
detail. The centre toward which all these topics 
point is Europe. The chief thread of connection is 
the historical fact that for the last four centuries the 
leading European countries have been engaged in 
exploring and subjugating the whole world from 
Europe as a centre. The first great exploring 
voyages were followed by large emigrations of Span- 
iards, English, Dutch, Portuguese, and French, which 
have, little by little, put the less civilized nations 
under contribution to Europe. This may at least be 
regarded as one of the strong threads of geographical 
connection between Europe and the rest of the 
world. The great traffic routes to North and South 
America and to Asia by way of the Cape of Good 
Hope and the Mediterranean, are the product of this 
historical development of geography. 



CORRELATION WITH OTHER STUDIES 233 

Throughout the work of th£ seventh and eighth 
grades the natural connections between geography 
and history are kept up. In these grades the litera- 
ture of Europe, which is partly historical in character, 
especially that of England, finds recognition in a full 
treatment of many of the best English classics, such 
as the " Merchant of Venice," Plutarch's " Lives," 
"Vicar of Wakefield," "Tom Brown's School Days," 
"Julius Caesar," "Roger de Coverley," "Lady of 
the Lake," "The Deserted Village," Macaulay's 
" Historical Essays," Motley's " Peter the Great," 
Dickens's " Tale of Two Cities," and a large number 
of other poems and historical stories. 

It may be seen from this discussion of the corre- 
lation between geography, history, and literature that 
the United States and Europe become the converg- 
ing centres of study in these three great branches of 
knowledge in the common schools. It is not deemed 
that this is an artificial scheme of correlation, but 
rather a natural arrangement of studies according to 
their fitness to arouse the intellectual and moral 
activities of children, and to equip them with a body 
of knowledge well organized, which will qualify them 
for life. At every point in the selection of these 
materials it is necessary to abide by those funda- 
mental, pedagogical principles which will secure to 
the children the best development of their own 
powers and character and at the same time their 
equipment for life in the modern world. 



234 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

The correlation of history with natural science has 
as yet attracted but little attention. It is apparent 
at a glance that the progress of the world has been 
largely due to scientific discovery. Little effort has 
been made to bring the course in history into any 
close contact with topics in natural science discussed 
in the regular school lessons. There are a few prom- 
inent cases, such as the invention and use of gun- 
powder, the mariner's compass, the steam-engine, the 
screw-propeller, the telegraph, the cotton-gin, the 
power-loom, the safety-lamp, the electric light, vac- 
cination, the monitor, etc., in which an invention has 
a pronounced effect upon history and human affairs. 
To what extent such topics as these may be taught 
in the regular science lessons parallel with history 
so as to show the historical importance of inventions 
remains for the course in science to determine. 

One of the admitted aims of the common school 
course is to give a child close practical acquaintance 
with modern life. This includes both the historical 
institutions brought down from the past which are 
so influential upon our present life and the great body 
of scientific knowledge, invention, and discovery, 
which has come to play such a controlling part in all 
modern industry and comfort. The course of study 
should certainly lead a child to a better understanding 
of these scientific forces in our society. In geog- 
raphy, in which we deal extensively with all forms 
of industrial life, many of the chief topics of natural 



CORRELATION WITH OTHER STUDIES 235 

science are directly touched upon. But a closer 
examination of the content of history will bring out 
a great many important connections between history 
and natural science. Even the pioneer stories are 
not lacking in this valuable sort of correlation. North 
America, under the eyes of the explorers, was one 
vast region of nature's wonder works. Rivers, moun- 
tains, forests, wild animals and natural products of 
all sorts reveal those forms and phenomena of nature 
which children of that age are most inclined to study. 
But in addition to this the inventions of men, such 
as the compass, the thermometer, barometer, and 
firearms, glass, steel instruments, the art of writing, 
fire-water, mirrors, etc., are employed upon their ex- 
ploring expeditions. Several of the exploring parties 
were sent out for purely scientific purposes. 

Another source of scientific interest of recognized 
importance is the biographies of distinguished invent- 
ors and scientific men. Men like Davie, Stephenson, 
Fulton, Whitney, Morse, and Edison furnish instruc- 
tive biographies for young people, and at the same 
time introduce them to interesting topics in natural 
science. Many of the most important applications 
of natural science in the shape of inventions and 
discoveries historically significant in the history of 
our country are simple enough to be understood, and 
the great changes which this sort of progress has 
made can be appreciated. 

In connection with history, geography, and natural 



236 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

science, there has been opened up of late a very im- 
portant field of constructive effort on the part of 
children which is destined in a short time to work 
out great improvements in education. We have al- 
ready discussed the value of 'manual training and 
constructive work in connection with history and 
literature in building houses and forts, in making 
furniture and tools, and in shaping other simple prod- 
ucts of pioneer or primitive society, including such 
things as making a loom, weaving cloth, tanning 
leather, constructing boats, huts, etc. But in addi- 
tion to these forms of making and doing, history and 
geography together lead us deeply into industrial life 
of all sorts, with its machines and processes, such as 
mill-wheels, saws, lathes, augers, drill machines, metal 
work of all kinds, and the reduction of raw material 
many of which the children may illustrate and work 
out in a crude way. In geography also many of the 
inventions based upon natural science find their im- 
mediate use. The experiments involved in natural 
science study require also a use of materials, tools, 
and instruments closely akin to the work of manual 
training. The vital relationship of all these differ- 
ent studies with one another when clearly seen and 
worked out is destined to give a unity and consist- 
ency to all our efforts in different studies, which 
they at present greatly lack. 

It may be said in conclusion on the subject of cor- 
relation that all the important studies, such as his- 



CORRELATION WITH OTHER STUDIES 237 

tory, reading, geography, science, and manual training, 
have a strong and increasing tendency to culminate 
in the forms of fine art as we find them in music, 
painting, sculpture, ceramics, woven fabrics, archi- 
tecture, and literature. For example, music as applied 
to singing of classic, patriotic, and religious songs, 
greatly intensifies and strengthens the educative 
effect. Many of the best historical paintings, as 
the landing of Columbus, his reception by Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella, and others have a distinct edu- 
cative value in connection with history. Most of 
the best works of modern sculpture in this country 
deal with historical topics, and some of the famous 
buildings in America, and especially in Europe, have 
both an historical and architectural importance. Cer- 
tainly the leading forms of architecture can be made 
familiar to children in connection both with history 
and geography. The more our teachers accustom 
themselves to discover and appreciate these numer- 
ous relationships between studies, the greater intelli- 
gence and rationality they will find in all studies. 
But one of the things most needed at first is a course 
of study in which the various branches of knowledge 
are selected and arranged with a definite regard for 
the interesting and appropriate correlations which 
are known to exist between the studies. 



CHAPTER VIII 

COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 

The following Course of Study in History, based 
on the ideas discussed in this book, is designed for 
classes from the third through the eighth grade of the 
common school. If this course seems too elaborate 
for some schools, and needs to be improved by the 
omission of some topics, it may still serve as a sub- 
stantial basis for the course as a whole. 

There are a number of problems to be solved in 
working out such a course of study. 

After the aim has been fixed and the general 
theory for the best selection of materials established, 
we must decide the relative importance of American 
and European history in the common school ; the 
relation of the history to the reading lessons, litera- 
ture, and geography in the corresponding grades ; 
and finally the basis for the selection of leading 
topics for each year. 

This chapter will outline the course, not only in 

history, but also in the related historical and classical 

238 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 239 

readings, and in geography, so as to show in a 
simple form the interrelations of history, reading, 
and geography. 

In this course of study American history is made 
the chief basis and backbone of history instruction 
for each grade from the fourth year on. The reasons 
for this, previously discussed, are briefly summarized 
as follows : — 

1. American history, beginning with the simplest 
conditions of early exploration and settlement, ad- 
vances by regular steps in a process of growth to our 
present complex conditions of political and social and 
industrial life. In a relatively short period most of 
the important stages of national growth are well 
illustrated in our own history. 

2. The chief epochs and crises of our history are 
extremely instructive and interesting to children. 

3. The excellent biographies of the leading charac- 
ters of American history are of a superior quality, 
and have great educational value for children and 
youth. 

4. The best parts of European history of educative 
value for children can be placed side by side with the 
corresponding and appropriate parts of American 
history. 

5. A general chronological outline of the world's 
history is out of the question for the common school. 
A wholly wrong viewpoint for judging the course in 
history in the common school is furnished by a world- 



24O SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

chronology and by the course of study in the classical 
gymnasium, which is often cited. 

6. History in our common school should begin 
with America and end with America, with such 
incorporation of European history as will give the 
necessary breadth and variety of culture. The par- 
allel reading lessons based on European classics and 
history ^stories will supplement the history studies 
with those best parts of European culture which chil- 
dren are capable of appropriating. 

7. Our present course of study and the whole ten- 
dency of American schools, show that American his- 
tory must be the chief staple of our history course. 
On the other hand, the increasing use of European 
classics and historical tales in our schools shows our 
appreciation for the best elements of European cul- 
ture. There is not the slightest disposition in this 
course to limit our history to a narrow Americanism. 

European History. Its Place in the Common School 
and its Relation to American History 

1. The fairy tales, folklore, and mythologies of 
European countries are, in this course, not regarded 
as a part of the history proper, but as belonging 
rather to the oral work in literature of the first three 
years of school. These stories and myths constitute 
a very important part of the educative materials of 
primary grades, and are indispensable both in them- 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 24 1 

selves and as a preliminary to history. They are 
sufficiently important to be regarded as a distinct 
body of educative material. Their separate and 
growing importance in primary grades is shown in 
many ways. 

2. A few important topics of European history 
are selected for full treatment in each grade from the 
fourth year on. They may precede or follow the 
American stories in the same grade. They are not 
mere supplements to American history, but important 
culture products for separate treatment. 

3. The selection of these topics is based, not upon 
chronology, but upon the quality of the story, its 
spirit and setting, and its fitness to educate children 
of the given age. European history offers the widest 
choice from the simple to the complex, from the 
worthless to the most valuable, from savagery and 
barbarism to the highest culture state reached by 
Athens, Paris, or London. It is an incomparable 
error to dump all this into a child's mind in chrono- 
logical order in the grades. 

4. Many biographies and events in European 
history have a close kinship with similar topics in 
American history. These should be brought side by 
side in the same grade. If they breathe the same 
spirit, teach the same lesson under different condi- 
tions, they will double its educative effect. It is well 
to compare Columbus's explorations to the west with 
those of De Gama to the east. Champlain, La Salle, 



242 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

and George Rogers Clark were men of the same 
heroic temper and endurance as David and Corio- 
lanus and King Alfred. 

5. The real educative influence of European his- 
tory can be secured to children by such a careful 
selection of those episodes best adapted to their 
interest and understanding and to their social 
needs. 

6. American topics should be traced back to their 
sources in European history and European topics 
followed to their results in America. The books and 
maps by which this can be done are now much more 
available than formerly. 

Selection of a Few Leading Topics 

In the course here offered a very few prominent 
standard topics of American history are selected for 
each grade. This plan excludes the heaping up of 
miscellaneous facts for memory work as well as the 
tedious chronological series for the early years. 

1. Each one of these topics should fit the age, 
understanding, and interest of children. Often the 
activities, games, drawings, and constructions incident 
to such history stories are the natural reactions of the 
children upon the material and show an important 
phase of its pedagogical fitness. 

2. Each topic should contain a vital core which 
eives it a real educative significance. It should 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 243 

plant in a child's mind a living germ capable of 
strong and beneficent growth. 

3. Such a topic may be a biography, an event, a 
campaign, an invention, or the growth of an idea. 

4. Each one of these topics should be worked out 
as a complete unit of thought, interesting in itself 
and in the associated facts, and provoking inquiry 
by a close succession of connected facts, giving a 
rational sense and movement. 

5. Biographical stories furnish a large number of 
such topics and constitute, especially in the early 
years of history study, the choicest and most educa- 
tive historical material. 

6. American history is probably the richest in 
choice biographical stories of any country in the 
world, and, as much of this material comes from the 
earlier, simple stages of our pioneer life, it is espe- 
cially appropriate to children. 

7. Such biographical and other topics are, of 
course, leading types and become centres for the 
organization of historical material. They simplify 
history by focussing it in a few leading characters, 
events, or ideas. Such important central topics also 
form an excellent basis for comparison and review, 
biography being compared with biography, event 
with event, etc., the children being led constantly 
to look backward over their previous studies for 
comparisons. 



244 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

The Re'e'nforccmcnt of History through Choice Read- 
ings from American and European Literature 

Great is the value of American and European liter- 
ature as a reenforcement to the history instruction. 
In the regular reading work of the schools, from the 
third grade upward, there is a large amount and 
variety of classic reading matter which is now used 
in the schools — poems, biographies, ballads, narra- 
tive history, novel, essay, and epic story, such as 
" Marmion," " Courtship of Miles Standish," " Hora- 
tius at the Bridge," " Paul Revere's Ride," Scott's 
" Tales of a Grandfather," " Ivanhoe," Hawthorne's 
" Grandfather's Chair," etc. In order to show the 
value of this literary material used in reading lessons 
as a supplement to history a list of the parallel 
classic reading now available, and much of it 
now in common use, is shown in each grade : 
(i) the American selections, and (2) the European 
selections. 

In judging the importance of this connection be- 
tween history and reading the following considera- 
tions should be kept in mind : — 

1. Much of the best literature of America and 
Europe is historical in character and content, and, 
so far as it enters into the reading course, should be 
brought into the closest relation to the correspond- 
ing history topics. No forced correlation should be 
sought, but what is natural and rational. 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 245 

2. In selecting the best literary products, suited 
for reading lessons, without any thought of teaching 
history, we have been wont to choose many poems 
and stories which give a remarkably full and clear 
description to great historical events and persons. 

3. Often a masterpiece of literature is, for chil- 
dren, a most suggestive treatment of a topic in 
history, e. g., Southey's " Battle of Blenheim," 
Holmes's " Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill," 
Plutarch's "Alexander the Great," Shakespeare's 
"Julius Caesar," etc. 

4. The course of study should take advantage of 
this very intimate relation between history and read- 
ing lessons, and thus cause the reading lessons to 
contribute greatly to the force and completeness of 
history-study. History seldom takes the time for 
such an intense and realistic treatment of a history 
topic as is given, for example, in "Marmion" of the 
battle of Flodden field and its attendant events. Lit- 
erature has thus a way of deepening and ingraining 
the lessons of history, which is beyond anything 
which history itself can do. 

5. A careful examination of this course of history 
as related to the reading will show that the history 
and reading lessons, to a considerable degree, are 
laid out on parallel lines. The simple reason for 
this is the fact that an event or story in history which 
thoroughly interests a child will interest him still 
more if put in a simple literary form which he can 



246 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

understand ; e.g., " Paul Revere's Ride," " Barbara 
Frietchie," " The Battle of Ivry," etc. In the nature 
of the case, when the history and reading touch 
the same or kindred topics, they should walk close 
together. 

6. Besides the English classics of a historical 
character used in regular reading lessons the supple- 
mentary books in literature and history read by 
children at home or in the school library may still 
further broaden and deepen their historical knowl- 
edge. Fully half of the historical readings indicated 
in this course of study are of this supplementary 
character. Most children have plenty of time at 
home for this kind of reading, and the school should 
give it a wise direction and stimulus. The appended 
lists show how excellent and abundant are the books 
adapted to each grade of school. 

7. In most cases the masterpieces of literature of 
an historical character are handled in reading lessons 
a year or two later than the corresponding history 
topics in history. Several reasons may be assigned 
for this : (a) The difficulty of the language and liter- 
ary form ; e.g., " Lady of the Lake," " Evangeline," 
Webster's " Speech on Bunker Hill," Plutarch's 
" Lives," Franklin's Autobiography, and others. 
(b) The artistic quality in a fine piece of literature 
does not at first appeal to a child, (c) A masterpiece 
of literature has often a greater depth and maturity 
of thought regarding an historical event and requires 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 247 

a more advanced age in the pupil, (d) The poem or 
drama often needs the foregoing history as a basis 
for its understanding. Such a poem is often a splen- 
did retrospect and vital summing up of earlier his- 
torical studies; e.g., Lowell's " Under the Old Elm," 
Webster's orations. It serves the student as a noble 
review of earlier studies, and draws lessons not seen 
at first. 

On the other hand, many of the best poems and 
stories are so simple and graphic that they can be 
used as reading lessons in the same grade in which 
the corresponding history topics are treated ; e.g., 
" Courtship of Miles Standish," " Paul Revere's 
Ride," " Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill," 
Hawthorne's " Grandfather's Chair," and others. 

THIRD GRADE 
HISTORY 

Christmas celebration : The Christmas story, with 
Christmas tree, pictures, etc. This is customary 
with all the primary grades. The story is narrated 
to younger children. Poems of Christmas time for 
recitation and song. These exercises do not partake 
so much of the character of instruction as of enter- 
tainment and joyful festivity. 

Thanksgiving celebration: History of early Thanks- 
giving days. Poems and stories. By means of pic- 
tures and stories something of early New England 
life is given. 



248 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Washington celebration : Stories of Washington. 
A full treatment of the early life of Washington is 
not expected, but an acquaintance with the more 
interesting stories and surroundings of his childhood. 
Other national characters treated in a similar way. 

Local history of the town or neighborhood : The 
early settlers of the town and neighborhood. Stories 
of the most prominent pioneers ; where they came 
from. Early log-houses. Hardships. First school- 
houses. Early roads and modes of travel. Family 
history. Grandfather stories. 

The family and neighborhood traditions are the 
best beginnings of history, and an interest in them 
should be regularly cultivated both in the home and 
school. The grandfather stories give first notions of 
chronology. 

Indian life and relics : Stories of Indian life and 
adventure in the early settlement of the neighbor- 
hood and of the region of country adjacent. 

Different nationalities in the community and where 
they came from. 

The geography of the third grade is expected to 
deal with the hills, streams, valleys, products, and 
occupations of the village and adjacent country. 
Simple and primitive forms of industry are worked 
out. 

In literature the Greek and other myths are han- 
dled orally by the teacher and told again by the 
children. 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 249 

FOURTH GRADE 

HISTORY 

Discoveries and Explorers 

Pioneers of the home state and neighboring states. 
The movement is gradually from home outward. 
For example, New York State, as the home and start- 
ing-point, may begin with the following stories : — 

Henry Hudson : Trip up the Hudson. Other 
voyages. Meeting with the Indians. A map of the 
world is needed and a good board sketch of the 
Hudson, locating the places of special interest on 
the trip of the "Half Moon." 

The earliest Dutch settlers : Trading with the 
Indians. The customs, buildings, and dress of the 
Dutch. Give some account of their previous home 
in Holland. A map and pictures are needed. 
Drawings may be made by the children. Construc- 
tions also of forts, palisades, Dutch houses, ovens, 
and windmills are to be encouraged. The activities 
of children in such efforts are easily set going, if 
materials are furnished. 

Champlain : Explorations. Expeditions against the 
Iroquois. First settlements along the St. Lawrence. 
First battle with the Indians on the shore of Lake 
Champlain. Locate France on the map, and trace 
the journey across the Atlantic. 

The Five Nations : Their homes and customs. War- 
like character and expeditions. The map of central 



250 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

New York should be drawn and- the warlike raids of 
these tribes into the neighboring regions indicated. 

La Salle : In Canada. At Niagara. On the 
Great Lakes. In Illinois and on the lower Missis- 
sippi. His hardships, dangers, and resolution. 
Tonty and Hennepin in relation to La Salle. Miles 
Standish at Plymouth. The trials of the first few years. 

In laying out the fourth year work for Massachu- 
setts schools the story of the first settlement of 
Plymouth and Boston would naturally come first, fol- 
lowed by other pioneer stories of New England, and 
the arrangement of the other stories of Hudson, etc., 
would be somewhat modified. In planning the course 
for Illinois schools, the stories of La Salle, Lincoln, 
and others of the Mississippi Valley, would occupy 
the first place, while the pioneer stories of more dis- 
tant states would follow later. 

Some schools may prefer to omit some of these 
stories or to substitute others in their place. 

Raleigh : Early life. His attempts at founding 
colonies. 

John Smith : Explorations. Experiences at James- 
town. 

Boone : Life in Kentucky. 

Washington : Early life. 

Lincoln : Early life to the age of twenty. 

The American Pioneer History Stories, in three 
volumes, contain most of the above stories and others 
for use in the fourth and fifth grades. 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 25 1 

OTHER NATIONAL STORIES 

Abraham : The chief scenes of his life. 

Joseph : All the parts suitable for children. 

David : His early life to the death of Saul. 

These stories are well given in " Bible Stories in 
Scripture Language." Use the map freely. Consult 
chapter on List of Books. 

Romulus : Founding of Rome. 

Coriolanus : In the main according to Plutarch. 

Cincinnatus : A short story. 

The Roman stories are well given in several of the 
supplementary story-books named in the lists. 

Julius Caesar : Conquests in Gaul and England. 

The Angles and Saxons : Their invasion of Eng- 
land. 

King Alfred : His war with the Danes and later 
labors for his people. 

All the above stories, both American and others, 
are designed for oral treatment. 

The English stories are given in the " Story of the 
English," and in several other historical readers. It 
is better to give a few of these stories in full and in- 
teresting detail, with pictures, maps, and involving 
constructive efforts by the children, than to multiply 
short, scrappy stories. 



252 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

LITERATURE AND READING OF FOURTH GRADE. THE 
FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE MUCH USED IN THE REGU- 
LAR READING LESSONS 

Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne) ; 
Old Greek Folk Stories (Peabody); Greek Heroes 
(Kingsley). These books are excellent for regular- 
school reading. Story of Ulysses and Tales of Troy, 
both prose and poetic translations and narrative 
stories. There are many renderings of the Greek 
myths and stories suited to school use. Book of 
Legends (Scudder). 

Complete translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, by 
Bryant, Palmer, and others, are now available for 
teachers and pupils for school and home use. 

Heroes of Asgard ; Norse Stories (Mabie) ; Stories 
from the Old German (Pratt) ; Old Norse Stories 
(Bradish); Siegfried (Burt). These stories of Norse 
and German myths have been used for regular read- 
ing exercises, or they may serve as supplementary 
reading matter in school and home. 

OTHER HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY STORIES 

Used in regular, supplementary, and home reading : 
Old Testament Stories in Scripture Language — the 
essential parts of the Bible stories for school use ; 
Old Stories of the East (Baldwin) — a free rendering 
of the old Bible stories ; Boy's King Arthur (Lanier) ; 
King Arthur and His Court (Frost); Stories of King 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 253 

Arthur's Round Table Knights ; Tales of Spenser, 
stories of the Faerie Queene ; Ballad Book. There 
are several good ballad books giving the old English, 
Scotch, and other European ballads. They are im- 
portant products of the old folklore tradition and 
early history. 

All the above stories and other books of similar 
character may be used partly for regular reading 
exercises, but especially for supplementary reading, 
for special occasions when the teacher reads to the 
whole school, and for home use at the fireside. 

HISTORY. SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 

American Life and Adventure (Eggleston) ; Stories 
of Our Country (Johonnot). These books furnish 
simple narratives of interesting scenes of American 
life. Four Great Americans ; Pioneers of the Revo- 
lution, stories of Boone, Robertson, and others ; 
some of the American Pioneer History Stories. 
Most of these American History Stories are simple 
enough to be read by the children. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Fifty Famous Stories Retold; Open Sesame, Vol. 
I and II — a collection of poems, ballads, etc.; The 
Arabian Nights — most famous of old stories ; Stories 
of the Old World (Church); The Niirnburg Stove, 
and other stories ; Child Life in Prose and Verse 
(Whittier). 



254 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

It is well for the children in the fourth grade to 
begin to read for themselves the simpler stories of 
America, and also kindred stories of adventure and 
heroism from other countries, especially from Euro- 
pean countries. The oral treatment of stories in this 
grade is the best possible introduction to the proper 
spirited appreciation of such narratives. 

GEOGRAPHY 

The geography of the fourth grade runs parallel 
with the history. The Pioneer History stories require 
a clear grasp of the natural or physical geography of 
North America and the power of interpreting maps. 

The geography of this year should contain a good 
description of the interesting and striking physical 
features of North America, its chief mountains, for- 
ests, rivers, and zones of climate. Parallel with 
these geographical topics each pioneer story neces- 
sitates a special map to make clear the geographical 
conditions of the story. 

Many of the topics of home geography treated 
in fourth grade trace out the origin of important 
products to various parts of North America and of 
the world, as tropical fruits, tea and coffee, cotton 
and silk goods, fine china and porcelain, etc. 

The advantage of this close parallelism of history 
and geography is found in the very great interest 
which good stories lend to localities, and in the 
mutual help which these studies render to each 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 255 

other in explaining and fixing better the facts of 
both geography and history. Each study reviews, 
reenforces, and intensifies the facts taught by the 
other. The value of each study in its relation to 
life is also better seen. 



FIFTH GRADE 

EUROPEAN EXPLORERS IN AMERICA 

Columbus : His great purpose and its results. 

The Cabots : A short story. 

Magellan : First voyage around the world. 

Cortes : The conquest of Mexico. Indians of 
Mexico. 

De Soto : His wanderings in the Southern states. 

Coronado : Explorations in the southwest. 

Drake : His buccaneering voyage against the 
Spaniards. 

Western Stories 

George Rogers Clark. 

Lewis and Clark : Journey up the Missouri. 

Fremont : Two expeditions among the Rocky 
Mountains. 

To California in 1849 to the gold regions. 

Powell's descent of the Colorado. 

These stories deal with two groups of the great- 
est explorers on sea and land. They were men of 
great energy, high purpose, and unyielding deter- 
mination. Their deeds are not always praiseworthy, 



256 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

but they are striking types of the men of their time, 
and in the main men of noble character. 



HISTORY, EUROPEAN 

Spanish and Portuguese Stories 

Isabella of Spain. 

Christians and Moors in Spain : Conquest of 
Granada. Irving's stories furnish some good mate- 
rial for the teacher. 

Prince Henry and De Gama : Exploration of the 
coast of Africa. The efforts of the Portuguese to 
find an eastern route to India and the results should 
be compared with Columbus's and Spain's efforts 
toward the west. 

English History 

William the Conqueror : Conquest of England. 

Richard I : His crusades. His knightly adventures. 

John and the Great Charter. 

Elizabeth : In connection with Raleigh and Drake. 
Story of the Armada. 

There are several excellent books covering these 
topics, as The Story of the English, Child's History 
of England, etc. 

Scotch History 

William Wallace and Robert Bruce. 

Tales of a Grandfather (Scott) and several other 
books give these famous stories in good form for 
schools, but somewhat difficult. 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 257 

READING 

Partly for regular school work and partly for home 
reading. 

I. American 

Hiawatha (Longfellow) — much used as a regular 
reader; American Explorers (Higginson) — much 
original material ; Heroes of the Middle West (Cath- 
erwood) ; Discovery of the Old Northwest (Baldwin) ; 
Colonial Children (Hart) — source material; Source 
Book of American History (Hart) — excellent ; Ameri- 
can Historical Tales (Morris) ; Children's Life of 
Abraham Lincoln (Putnam). Children should be 
encouraged at school and home to read and enjoy 
this class of books. 

II. English and Scotch 

Tales of Chivalry (Rolfe) ; Tales from English 
History (Rolfe) — prose and verse. Heroic ballads, 
especially English and Scotch. 

Robin Hood (Pyle) — first-class stories ; Tales from 
Scottish History (Rolfe) ; Story of the English (Guer- 
ber) — earlier parts. 

STORIES OF OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 

Reading and Literature 

Lays of Ancient Rome (Macaulay); Jason's Quest 
(Lowell) — Story of the Golden Fleece; Ten Boys on 
the Road from Long Ago — partly English stories ; 



258 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Stories from Herodotus — Croesus, Cyrus, and others ; 
Story of the Greeks (Guerber) — the earlier parts; 
Story of Roland (Baldwin) — age of Charlemagne; 
Ulysses among the Phaeacians (Bryant) — simple 
poetic form ; the Odyssey of Homer (Palmer) — poetic 
prose rendering ; Book of Golden Deeds — many 
short stories. 

Most of these are famous world-stories which are 
not only interesting to children, but of culture value 
as part of the race thought and experience. In the 
regular lessons in history and reading only a part of 
this historical and literary matter can be treated. 
But the leisure hours of children in school and at 
home cannot be better employed than in this reading, 
which expands the mind beyond the narrow range of 
school lessons. The geographical theatre of these 
stories should be clearly understood as a basis for 
clear knowledge. 

Two years are thus given to the pioneer period of 
American history, dealing with the life, difficulties, 
and surroundings of the explorers and very earliest 
settlers. Chronology is of but little importance, 
although a few leading dates can be fixed. The 
great thing is to produce a strong impression by a 
complete, animated, and realistic protraiture of a lead- 
ing character or events in which he figured. The pio- 
neer period of American history lasted, however, from 
1492 to 1850, or even later, and one of our historians 
has called attention to the fact that the most marked 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 259 

and characteristic traits of American character have 
been found usually upon the frontier. As indicated 
in the course, parallel to these American stories runs 
a series of European history stories, somewhat similar 
in tone and general simplicity of life. 

With these statements in mind, it will be possible 
to see the relation of this entire course of history 
study to the parallel course in geography. 

The fourth, fifth, and sixth grade geography deals 
chiefly with the United States and North America, 
thus running parallel to much of the history of the 
same grades. 

In the seventh grade the geography of Europe is 
mainly studied. It will be observed that the sixth- 
grade history has had much to do with Europe, both 
directly, as in the Persian and Punic wars, and in- 
directly in the relations of colonial settlement and 
development to European states, wars, etc. Besides 
this, the myths, history stories, and literature of 
European countries have been much used in the 
fourth and fifth grades, where the geographical loca- 
tions of many of them have been fixed, as in the case 
of Ulysses in the Mediterranean, Siegfried on the 
Rhine, Horatius at Rome, Alfred in England, Isabella 
in Spain, and many others. 



260 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

SIXTH GRADE 

HISTORY 

European History 

The Persian wars : Contact of Persia with Greece. 

Darius and Xerxes : Marathon and Plataea. 

The battle of Salamis : The leading characters also. 

The Punic wars : Rome against Carthage. Han- 
nibal and Fabius. Regulus. 

The Scipios : The courage and perseverance of the 
Romans. 

Colonial History of America 

Virginia: James I, Bacon, Washington. Develop- 
ment of representative government. Royal govern- 
ors. Emphasis upon the English side of the history. 
The picture of colonial life among the Virginia cava- 
liers should be clear. 

New York : Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch rule. 
History of the colony under royal governors. The 
relations with the Indians and other neighbors. 

Pennsylvania: William Penn, Benjamin Franklin. 
The Quakers and Germans and Scotch-Irish. The 
people and the governors. Plans for the larger 
union of the colonies. 

Massachusetts: Settlement of Plymouth and Bos- 
ton. Winthrop. Growth of the representative sys- 
tem. The Indian wars. Royal governors, charters, 
and popular assemblies. The religious controversies 
and persecutions. 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 26 1 

THE EUROPEAN WARS AS RELATED TO AMERICA 

The last French and Indian War. Braddock's 
expedition. The last great struggle between the 
English and the French. Pitt in England. Mont- 
calm and Wolfe. Pontiac's conspiracy. Condition 
of affairs at the close of the struggle. Character 
of French and English and their relations to the 
Indians. 

RELATED READING AND LITERATURE (AMERICAN) 

Miles Standish (Longfellow); Grandfather's Chair 
(Hawthorne); The Gentle Boy (Hawthorne); Giles 
Corey (Longfellow) ; Mabel Martin (Whittier) ; Snow- 
Bound, Among the Hills (Whittier); Tales of the 
White Hills (Hawthorne); The Sketch Book (Irv- 
ing); Source Book of American History (Hart); 
Biographical Stories (Hawthorne); Our Country in 
Prose and Verse; Pilgrims and Puritans (Moore); 
Conquest of the Old Northwest (Baldwin); The 
Building of the Ship (Longfellow); Autobiography 
of Franklin ; Seven American Classics ; The Con- 
quest of Mexico (Prescott); Children's Stories of 
American Literature (Wright). 

READINGS FROM ENGLISH LITERATURE 

The Coming of Arthur and the Passing of Arthur 
(Tennyson); Lay of the Last Minstrel (Scott); 
Choice English Lyrics ; Child's History of England 
(Dickens); Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb); Stories 



262 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

from Waverley (Scott); Stories from Old English 
Poetry (Richardson) ; Stories from English History 
(Church), 2 vols. ; English Historical Tales (Morris); 
Source Book of English History (Kendall) ; History 
of England (Macaulay) — Introduction. 

EUROPEAN READINGS 

Ten Great Events — partly English; Froissart 
(Lanier's); William Tell (Schiller); Iliad (Bryant) 
— poetic translation ; Don Quixote — a simple adap- 
tation. 

SEVENTH GRADE 
THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY AND EUROPE 

Leo X, Luther, Charles V, Henry VIII, Loyola, 
Gustavus Adolphus. Contest of Protestants and 
Catholics. 

THE PURITAN REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND 

Charles I and Parliament; Strafford. Hampden, 
Pym, Cromwell, Milton. William of Orange and 
the Protestant succession. Wesley and the Non- 
conformists. 

LOUIS XIV AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 

French royalty and aristocracy. The tyranny of 
the upper classes over the poor. Lafayette, his 
early life and connection with America. 

In the previous grades the character of the French 
has been studied in a much simpler form in Canada. 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 263 

Their customs, religion, and warlike qualities were 
seen in La Salle, Frontenac, Champlain, Marquette, 
the Jesuits, and others. The stories of Champlain, 
La Salle, and the French wars have dealt also with 
the schemes of the French government and with the 
French monarchs and statesmen. 

AMERICAN HISTORY 

Causes of the Revolution. Trace back the causes 
in the history of the colonies and of England. The 
life of Samuel Adams as a Puritan leader. Opening 
events of the war about Boston. The capture of 
New York and the battles near New York. Wash- 
ington's retreat through New Jersey. Burgoyne's 
invasion and its results. Valley Forge and the 
sufferings of the army. Sea-fights — Paul Jones and 
others. War in the South — Charleston, Savannah. 
Cornwallis's campaigns and surrender at Yorktown. 
Life of Washington, Franklin, Paul Jones, John 
Adams, Morris. The state of money matters at 
the close of the war. The growing hostility between 
the states. Congress and its power under the Articles 
of Confederation. The Philadelphia Convention : its 
struggles and leading men. The Constitution before 
the people ; ratification. The life of James Madison 
in connection with the Constitution. 

The great biographies should be very prominent, 
as Life of Washington (Scudder) and Samuel Adams 
(Hosmer). 



264 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

RELATED READING AND LITERATURE 

Evangeline (Longfellow) — French life and earlier 
history ; Poems of Emerson (" Lexington," "Boston," 
and other poems); Webster's Bunker Hill, and 
Adams and Jefferson — strongly historical ; Grand- 
mother's Story of Bunker Hill (Holmes); Camps 
and Firesides of the Revolution; Boys of '76 (Coffin) 
— good home reading, illustrated ; American War 
Ballads and Lyrics — the earlier parts ; Paul Revere's 
Ride (Longfellow) ; From Colony to Commonwealth 
(Moore); Life of Washington (Scudder) — the best 
for children; Source Book of American History 
(Hart) — Revolution and Confederation; Washing- 
ton's Rules of Conduct, and other papers ; Poor 
Richard's Almanac (Franklin) ; Speech on the 
Landing of the Pilgrims (Webster); Last of the 
Mohicans (Cooper) ; Stories of American Literature 
(Wright); biographies: Twelve Naval Captains 
(Sewell), first part; Washington and His Country 
(Fiske-Irving); Life of Samuel de Champlain (Sedg- 
wick); Life of John Paul Jones (Hapgood); Life of 
Benjamin Franklin (Moore). 

RELATED ENGLISH LITERATURE 

Some of these books, like those in the previous 
list of American books, may be used in the regular 
reading work. 

History of England (Macaulay) — the part on the 
Puritan revolution ; Tom Brown's School Days 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 265 

(Hughes) — English school life; Christmas Carol 
(Dickens); Tales of a Grandfather (Scott) — Wal- 
lace and Bruce ; Shakespeare's Tragedies (Lamb) — 
Historical plays ; Vicar of Wakefield (Goldsmith) 
— English life; Cotter's Saturday Night (Burns) — 
Scottish home life ; Source Book of English History 
(Kendall); Story of the English (Guerber) — use the 
parts needed. 

OTHER LITERATURE OF EUROPE 

The Two Great Retreats (Grote) — retreat of the 
ten thousand; Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare) — 
Italy ; Plutarch's Lives — Greek and Roman leaders; 
Life of Peter the Great (Motley) — interesting and 
clear; Natural History of Selbourne (White); Sto- 
ries from the Classic Literature of Many Nations 
(Palmer); Stories of the Alhambra (Irving) — Spain 
and the Moors ; The Letters of Chesterfield to his 
Son. William Tell. 

EIGHTH GRADE 
EUROPEAN HISTORY 

Julius Caesar and Augustus. The Roman Empire. 
The great period of Rome. 

The French Revolution and Napoleon. Compari- 
son with the American Revolution. 

England's conquest of India. Clive and Hastings. 

The English in Africa. Livingstone and Stanley. 
The struggle for Africa in recent years. 



266 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Revolt of the Spanish-American provinces. 

The Greek war of independence. Turkey. Decay 
of Turkish power. 

The union of the north German states. Bismarck 
and King William. 

The union of Italian states. Cavour and Victor 
Emanuel. 

Queen Victoria's reign. Bright, Gladstone. The 
English empire at present. 

AMERICAN HISTORY UNDER THE CONSTITUTION 

Hamilton and the finances ; the banking system. 
Early division into parties ; origin and growth of 
parties. Growth in territory, illustrated by simple 
maps. War of 1812; the right of impressment. 
Internal improvements ; commercial routes westward. 
Immigration — its character and effects. Jackson 
and the spoils system. Inventions — their influence 
upon the progress of the country. Growth of slav- 
ery ; the chief steps in its development. The 
Mexican War — its motives and results. Discovery 
of gold in California; continental railroads. The 
doctrine of state rights ; southern leaders. Plan 
of the Civil War ; a few chief campaigns. Our 
system of revenue ; the national debt. The three 
departments of government ; a system of checks. 
Civil-service reform ; review of the spoils system. 

Biographies : Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, 



COURSE OF STUDY IN HISTORY 267 

Daniel Webster, Lincoln, Horace Greeley, Whittier, 
Garrison, Whitney, Morse, Peter Cooper. 

REGULAR READING LESSONS AND AMERICAN LITERA- 
TURE 

Masterpieces of American Literature (Scudder) ; 
Nature Pictures by American Poets ; Speech on 
Washington (Webster) ; Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress ; Tales of a Wayside Inn (Longfellow) ; Poems 
of American Patriotism ; Hymns and Patriotic Songs ; 
Fortune of the Republic and American Scholar 
(Emerson); Schurz's Abraham Lincoln and other 
selected pieces; Lincoln's Inaugurals, and other 
speeches. My Hunt after the Captain (Holmes); 
Biglow Papers — selections (Lowell) ; Uncle Tom's 
Cabin (Stowe) ; Speech in Reply to Hayne, or, The 
Great Debate (Webster) ; Burke on Conciliation with 
the American Colonies; Oregon Trail (Parkman) — 
pictures of western life ; Source Book of American 
History (Hart) — latter part; The House of Seven 
Gables (Hawthorne); Story of the Great Republic 
(Guerber) — latter part ; American Writers of To-day 
(Vedder); The Pilot (Cooper); Twelve Naval Cap- 
tains (Sewell). Great Words of Great Americans. 

READINGS FROM ENGLISH LITERATURE 

Masterpieces of English Literature : Roger de 
Coverley (Addison) — English pictures; Lady of the 
Lake and Marmion (Scott); The Deserted Village 



268 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

and Traveller (Goldsmith); Ivanhoe, The Abbot, and 
Rob Roy (Scott); Essay on Samuel Johnson (Macau- 
lay); Source Book of English History (Kendall); 
Tale of Two Cities (Dickens). Seven British 
Classics. 

OTHER EUROPEAN LITERATURE 

Julius Caesar (Shakespeare) — closely related to 
the history; Peasant and Prince (Martineau); The 
Judgment of Socrates (Plato) ; Story of the Romans 
(Guerber) — latter parts; The Boy's Browning — 
"Pied Piper" and other poems; Plutarch's Lives — 
historical biographies ; Don Quixote (Cervantes) ; 
Two Great Retreats — retreat of Napoleon from 
Moscow ; The Talisman and Quentin Durward 
(Scott) ; Jean Valjean ; Motley's Peter the Great and 
The Siege of Leyden. 



CHAPTER IX 

LIST OF BOOKS 

Out of the great number of books on American 
and European history, it is needful that a careful 
selection be made of a few most suitable for use in 
the grades. 

In pursuance of the plan and course of study laid 
out in the preceding chapters, a few select books have 
been chosen for each grade. 

In each grade three groups of books are given. 

i. Those books which may serve as a text-book 
basis for more careful study. In fourth and fifth 
grades the first list contains the stories to be treated 
orally by the teacher. 

2. A list of supplementary reading and source 
material, biography and story, which children may be 
encouraged to use at school and home. This will 
open up the library to children, and teach them how 
to make use of books, sources, etc. 

3. A list of a few important books for teach- 
ers, including some of the secondary histories, the 
stronger biographies and fuller source materials, doc- 

269 



270 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

uments, etc. Such a book as Channing and Hart's 
Guide to the Study of American History is of great 
value to teachers in directing their reading and study. 

Several books of this character, with good, brief 
bibliographies, and a few books on the pedagogics 
of history are included. 

The large, complete histories, such as Schouler's 
McMaster's, Bancroft's, and others, are named at 
the end of the list. 

The entire list of books is designed to be definite 
for each grade, and to strike the middle line between 
too much and too little. 



LIST OF BOOKS 

FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADES 

I. Books of American pioneer stories and a few European 
stories which furnish material suitable for oral treatment by the 
teacher. A few books of select poems and sources will also be 
of service to teachers. 
Pioneers on Land and Sea. (McMurry.) The Macmillan Co. 

This contains the stories of Hudson, Champlain, John Smith, 
Raleigh, early life of Washington, Columbus, Magellan, Corte"s, 
and early New England. 

Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley. (McMurry.) The Macmillan 
Co. 

This has the stories of La Salle, Joliet and Marquette, Henne- 
pin, Boone, Robertson, Sevier, George Rogers Clark, Lincoln, 
and De Soto. 

Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains and the West. (McMurry.) 
The Macmillan Co. 

The stories of Lewis and Clark, Fremont's two expeditions, 
Parkman among the Indians, the Sioux massacre, the trip to 
California in '49, and Powell's descent of the Colorado. 

The three books above named contain stories for use in both 
fourth and fifth grades. The order in which they are used de- 
pends upon the location of the home, in the East or West. It is 
recommended that the ocean pioneers, Columbus, Magellan, etc., 
be taken in the latter part of the fifth grade. 

Pilgrims and Puritans. (Moore.) Ginn & Co. 

The best account for our purpose of the early settlement of 
Plymouth and Boston. This reaches also into colonial history. 

271 



272 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Heroes of the Middle West. (Catherwood.) Ginn & Co. 

Excellent stories of the early French explorers along the Lakes 
and the Mississippi. 

The Discovery of the Old Northwest. (Baldwin.) American 
Book Co. 
Good stories of the French explorers. 

The Conquest of the Old Northwest. (Baldwin.) American 
Book Co. 
Stories of the contest for the Ohio Valley and the Northwest. 

A Book of American Explorers. (Higginson.) Longmans, 
Green & Co. 
These are instructive stories of the early explorers and settlers 
in America, containing much source material. 

Our Country in Poem and Prose. (Persons.) American Book 
Co. 
Excellent selections. 

Samuel de Champlain. (Sedgwick.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

One hundred and twenty-six pages. A good, brief account of 
Champlain 1 s life. 

George Rogers Clark. (Turner.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
A lively narrative of Clark's exploits. 

Lewis and Clark. (Lighton.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

The three above-mentioned books are good, brief biographies 
of value and interest to teachers as giving a fuller and more com- 
prehensive treatment than the previous stories. 

Source Book of American History. (Hart.) The Macmillan Co. 
The earlier parts on explorations and early settlement. 

Children's Life of Abraham Lincoln. (Putnam.) A. C. McClurg 
&Co. 

Stories from English History. (Church.) The Macmillan Co. 
Earlier and later tales of England. 

History of England. (Cooke.) D. Appleton & Co. 



LIST OF BOOKS 273 

England's Story. (Tappan.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
Instructive and well illustrated. 

Four American Explorers. (Kingsley.) Werner School Book 
Co. 

How our Grandfathers Lived. Source Reader. (Hart.) The 
Macmillan Co. 

Old South Leaflets. Sources. D. C. Heath & Co. 

American History Leaflets. (Hart and Channing.) Lovell. 

Stories from the Bible. (Church.) The Macmillan Co. 
First Series. The early Bible stories in good form. 

Source Book of English History. (Kendall.) The Macmillan 
Co. 
A few selections from the first part. 

2. Books of simple, historical narrative which may be read by 
children in the fourth or fifth grades. 

Stories of American Life and Adventure. (Eggleston.) Ameri- 
can Book Co. 
Simple and interesting stories. 

Stories of Colonial Children. (Pratt.) Educational Publishing 
Co. 
Very simple stories of early Massachusetts. 

Colonial Life in New Hampshire. (Fassett.) Ginn & Co. 
An interesting description of early pioneer struggles. 

Colonial Children. (Hart.) The Macmillan Co. 
Very simple source reader in early American history. 

Pioneers of the Revolution. Public School Publishing Co. 
Simple stories of Boone, and others. 

Stories of the Badger State. (Thwaites.) American Book Co. 

Stories of Maine. (Swett.) American Book Co. 

A First Book in American History. (Eggleston.) American 
Book Co. 



274 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Wigwam Stories. (Judd.) Ginn & Co. 
Primitive Indian legends and customs. 

American Indians. (Starr.) D. C. Heath & Co. 
One of the best books on Indian life. 

Stories of our Country. (Johonnot.) American Book Co. 

Children's Stories of American Progress. (Wright.) Scribner's. 

Four Great Americans. (Baldwin.) Werner School Book Co. 

Stories of Ohio. (Howells.) American Book Co. 

Stories of Georgia. (Harris.) American Book Co. 

American Leaders and Heroes. (Gordy.) Scribner's. 
Instructive, entertaining, and well illustrated. 

Explorers and Travelers. (Greely.) Scribner's. 

The Young Puritans of Old Hadley. (Smith.) Roberts Bros. 

Four True Stories of Life and Adventure. (Smith.) W. 
Beverly Harrison. 

Hero Tales of American History. (Roosevelt and Lodge.) The 
Century Co. 

A Primary History of the United States. (McMaster.) American 
Book Co. Illustrated. 

Pacific History Stories. Tales of discovery of the Pacific slope. 
Ainsworth & Co. 

First Steps in the History of Our Country. (Mowry.) Silver, 
Burdett & Co. 

The Boys of Greenway Court. (Butterworth.) D. Appleton & 
Co. 

Short Stories from English History. (Blaisdell.) Ginn & Co. 
Easy narrative. 

Stories of the Olden Time. (Johonnot.) American Book Co. 
Myths, legends, and historical tales. Somewhat difficult. 



LIST OF BOOKS 275 

Fifty Famous Stories Retold. (Baldwin.) American Book Co. 

The City of the Seven Hills. (Harding.) Silver, Burdett & Co. 

The Story of the Romans. (Guerber.) American Book Co. 
Somewhat difficult in language. 

Stories of Old France. (Pitman.) American Book Co. 

Old Stories of the East. (Baldwin.) American Book Co. 

Grandfather's Chair. (Hawthorne.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

3. Valuable references for teachers, including some of the abler 
and fuller historical works. 

The Discovery of America. 2 Vols. (Fiske.) Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co. 

The Beginnings of New England. (Fiske.) Houghton, Mifflin 
&Co. 

Old Virginia and her Neighbors. (Fiske.) Houghton, Mifflin 
& Co. 

The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. (Fiske.) Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co. 
Very interesting and instructive books for teachers. 

Pioneers of France in the New World. (Parkman.) 

La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West. (Parkman.) 

These books, published by Little, Brown & Co., are the best 
teachers' books of early American, history. 

The California and Oregon Trail. (Parkman.) Little, Brown 
&Co. 

American History told by Contemporaries. (Hart.) Vol. I. 
The Macmillan Co. 
A very choice collection of source materials, well-arranged and 
easy of use. 

Boys 1 Heroes. (Hale.) Lothrop. 

Historical Tales, French. (Morris.) J. B. Lippincott. 



276 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

The Winning of the West. (Roosevelt.) Putnam. 

The best material for the early history of the Ohio Valley. 

A Short History of the Mississippi Valley. (Hosmer.) Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co. 
Excellent, but somewhat brief. 

Life of Christopher Columbus. (Lamartine.) Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co. 

The Conquest of Mexico. (Prescott.) Maynard, Merrill & Co. 
An abridgment. 

The Making of New England. (Drake.) Scribner's. 

The Making of the Ohio Valley States. (Drake.) Scribner's. 

The Making of the Great West. (Drake.) Scribner's. 

These books are excellent narratives of early conditions. Well 
illustrated. 

Larger History. (Higginson.) Harper Brothers. 

Sir Francis Drake. (Winsor.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Sir Walter Raleigh. (Edwards.) 

Columbus. (Adams.) Dodd, Mead & Co. 

An Historical Geography of the United States. (MacCoun.) 
Silver, Burdett & Co. 
Simple maps with historical notes and explanations. 

Westward Ho! (Kingsley.) The Macmillan Co. 

History of England. (Buckley.) The Macmillan Co. 

Alfred the Great. (Hughes.) The Macmillan Co. 

The Story of the Christians and Moors of Spain. (Yonge.) 
The Macmillan Co. 

Stories of Croesus, Cyrus, and Babylon, from Herodotus. 
(Church.) Maynard, Merrill & Co. 



LIST OF BOOKS 277 

Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago. (Andrews.) Ginn & 
Co. 

A Short History of Mediaeval Europe. (Thatcher.) Scribner's. 

The Story of Tonty. (Catherwood.) A. C. McClurg. 

Alice of Old Vincennes. (Thompson.) The Bowen-Merrill Co. 

Students' History of the United States. (Channing.) The 
Macmillan Co. 
An excellent guide for teachers. Good reference lists. 

Guide to the Study of American History. (Channing and Hart.) 
Ginn & Co. 
A most complete and satisfactory book for teachers. 

The Teaching of History and Civics. (Bourne.) Longmans, 
Green & Co. 
A complete pedagogical treatise on history. 

SIXTH GRADE 

I. Text-books for children's use. 

A special children's text-book on the colonial period has not 
been prepared, but a number of books deal somewhat fully with 
this period. A few of these are named, as follows : — 
History of the United States. (Fiske.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

One hundred and eighty pages devoted to the period before the 
Revolution. The language may be somewhat difficult for 
children. This book may serve well as an outline, which can 
be filled in by teacher and children from other sources. 

Several of the primary histories have simple, mostly biographi- 
cal narratives of this early period, as a History of the United 
States (Gordy), Scribner's, the New Era History, published by 
Eaton & Co., Story of the Great Republic (Guerber), American 
Book Co., Our Country's Story (Tappan), Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co,, and a Short History of the United States (Scudder), Sheldon 
& Co. They are usually well illustrated with maps and quaint 
pictures. 



2^8 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

A good book for use in connection with one of the above, used 
as a text, is Higginson's A Larger History of the United States 
of America to the Close of Jackson's Administration, Chapters 
I to VIII. Well illustrated. 

Colonial Children. (Hart.) Source Readers in American His- 
tory, No. 1. The Macmillan Co. 
Excellent. The very best select material for children. 

The story of the Persian wars in Greece and of the Punic wars 
between Rome and Carthage are well told in a number of the 
histories for young people ; for example : The Story of the Greeks 
(Guerber), and The Story of the Romans (Guerber), American 
Book Co. ; The City of the Seven Hills (Harding), Scott, Fores- 
man & Co. ; History of Rome for Beginners (Shuckburgh), The 
Macmillan Co.; Greeks and Persians (Cox), Scribner's; Rome 
and Carthage (Smith), Scribner's. 

2. Books of reference on colonial history for children. 

Pilgrims and Puritans. (Moore.) Ginn & Co. 

From Colony to Commonwealth. (Moore.) Ginn & Co. 

Source Book of American History. (Hart.) The Macmillan Co. 
Chapters I to VIII. Well adapted for the use of children. 

The Making of New England. (Drake.) Scribner's. 

The Making of Virginia and the Middle Colonies. (Drake.) 
Scribner's. 

The Making of the Great West. (Drake.) Scribner's. 
These three volumes supply good supplementary reading. 

The Border Wars of New England. (Drake.) Scribner's. 

Life of George Washington. (Scudder.) Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co. 
Chapters I to XII give the best account for children of Wash- 
ington's life up to the Revolution. 

Grandfather's Chair. (Hawthorne.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
The best stories of colonial life in Hawthorne's interesting style. 



LIST OF BOOKS 279 

Colonial Days in Old New York. (Earle.) Scribner's. 
Fine description of Dutch life and customs. 

Colonial Days and Ways. (H. E. Smith.) The Century Co. 

The Gentle Boy and Other Tales. (Hawthorne.) Houghton 
Mifflin & Co. 

Colonial Pioneers. (Parton.) Maynard, Merrill & Co. 

History of Plymouth Plantation. (Bradford.) Maynard, Mer- 
rill & Co. 

Colonial Massachusetts. (Dawes.) Silver, Burdett & Co. 
Good stories. Well illustrated. 

Roger Williams. (Straus.) The Century Co. 

Child Life in Colonial Days. (Earle.) Illustrated. The Mac- 
millan Co. 

Stories of the Old Bay State. (Brooks.) American Book Co. 

American History Stories. (Dodge.) Lee & Shepard. 

Historic Boston. (Hale.) D. Appleton & Co. 

The Autobiography of Franklin. The Macmillan Co., American 
Book Co., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Ginn & Co. 
Parts of this interesting narrative of colonial life can be selected 
by the teacher for reference reading, or class use. 

Benjamin Franklin. (More.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
A short, interesting biography of Franklin. 

William Penn. (Hodges.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
This supplies some excellent descriptions of Penn's work. 

Colonial Life in New Hampshire. (Fassett.) Ginn & Co. 

American Indians. (Starr.) D. C. Heath & Co. 

The Conquest of the Northwest. (Baldwin.) American Book Co. 
Clear and well narrated. 

Historical Geography of the United States. (MacCoun.) 
A small book with good series of historical maps, notes, etc. 



280 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Biographical Stories. (Hawthorne.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

The Courtship of Miles Standish. (Longfellow.) Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co. 

Westward Ho ! (Kingsley.) The Macmillan Co. 

The Conquest of Mexico. (Prescott.) Maynard, Merrill & Co. 
Abridged. 

Ten Great Events in History. (Johonnot.) American Book Co. 

Tales from Scottish History. (Rolfe.) American Book Co. 

Tales from English History. (Rolfe.) American Book Co. 

Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago. (Andrews.) Ginn & 
Co. 

3. Important reference books for teachers. 

The Colonies. 1492-1750. (Thwaites.) Longmans, Green & 
Co. 

Home Life in Colonial Days. (Earle.) Illustrated. The Mac- 
millan Co. 
An excellent treatment of this period with descriptive list of 
best books for the teacher's use. 

Customs and Fashions of Old New England. (Earle.) Scrib- 
ner's. 

Half Hours with American History. Vol. I. J. B. Lippincott. 

Colonial America. J. B. Lippincott. 
Excellent material on special topics. 

A Student's History of the United States. (Channing.) The 
Macmillan Co. 
A book designed for high schools, but of the greatest value to 
teachers. A somewhat full treatment of the colonial period, 
pp. 1-150. Excellent maps and book references. 

Guide to the Study of American History. (Channing and Hart.) 
Ginn & Co. 



LIST OF BOOKS 28 1 

American History told by Contemporaries. Vols. I and II. 

Full and well-selected source material for the colonial period. 
Excellent books for the school library. 

The Beginnings of New England. (Fiske.) 

Old Virginia and her Neighbors. (Fiske.) 2 Vols. 

The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. (Fiske.) 2 Vols. 
All published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. These five volumes 
have great interest and value. 

The Making of New England. (Drake.) Scribner's. 
Very instructive on colonial life. 

Virginia and the Middle Colonies. (Drake.) Scribner's. 
Excellent detail. 

Pioneers of New France. (Parkman.) 

Montcalm and Wolfe. (Parkman.) 

Conspiracy of Pontiac. (Parkman.) 
All published by Little, Brown & Co. 

Costumes of Colonial Times. (Earle.) Scribner's. 

Miles Standish. (Abbott.) Dodd, Mead & Co. 

Colonial Era. (Fisher.) Scribner's. 

This is the most complete treatment of the colonial period in a 
single volume. 

English Colonies. (Lodge.) Harper Brothers. 

American History Leaflets. (Hart and Channing.) Lovell & Co. 

Old South Leaflets. D. C. Heath & Co. 

European Colonies. (Payne.) The Macmillan Co. 

The Seats of the Mighty. (Parker.) D. Appleton & Co. 
An historical novel. Story of Quebec. 

Side Glimpses from the Colonial Meeting-house. (Bliss.) 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



282 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

A Short History of the Mississippi Valley. (Hosmer.) Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co. 

Short History of the English People. (Green.) The Macmillan 
Co. 

Life of Hannibal. (Arnold.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Stories from English History. (Church.) The Macmillan Co. 

Method in History. (Mace.) Ginn & Co. 

How to study and teach History. (Hinsdale.) D. Appleton 
&Co. 

SEVENTH GRADE 

I. Books for careful reading and study by the children. 

History of the United States. (Fiske.) Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co. 
This furnishes merely a good outline to be filled in from fuller 
sources. Condensed and somewhat difficult. Any one of several 
other text-books will serve as well as Fiske's. 

The War of Independence. (Fiske.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
A full and interesting account of the causes leading up to the 
war, and of the chief campaigns. This book can receive a careful 
study. 

Washington and his Country. (Fiske-Irving.) Ginn & Co. 

This book furnishes excellent collateral reading and study of 
special topics. It is largely biographical and interesting. 

Benjamin Franklin. (More.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
Chapters V and VI. A brief account of Franklin in France. 

Source Book of American History. (Hart.) The Macmillan Co. 
Chapters IX and X. 

Paul Jones. (Hapgood.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
A biography of the chief naval hero of the Revolution. 

Camps and Firesides of the Revolution. (Hart.) The Mac- 
millan Co. 
An excellent source reader. Simple. 



LIST OF BOOKS 283 

American History told by Contemporaries. (Hart.) Vol. II. 

The best and simplest source material. This book should be 
in the school library for constant reference. Part also of Vol. III. 

England's Story. (Tappan.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

This contains, for reference, a good, brief account of the Eng- 
lish Puritan revolution, as well as an outline history of England. 

History of England. (Macaulay.) Maynard, Merrill & Co. 
Chapter I. The part on the Puritan revolution. 

2. Further books of reference and supplementary reading for 
children. 

The Men who made the Nation. (Sparks.) The Macmillan Co. 
First half of the book. Somewhat difficult in language. 

Life of Washington. (Scudder.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
An excellent biography for children. 

Burgoyne's Invasion. (Drake.) Lee & Shepard. 
An interesting monograph on this expedition. 

Stories of Georgia. (Harris.) American Book Co. 

Grandfather's Chair. (Hawthorne.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
Part III. Good stories in Hawthorne's fine style. 

Poems of American Patriotism. Scribner's. 
The earlier selections in the book. 

Boys of '76. (Coffin.) Harper Brothers. Illustrated. 

Heroes of the Revolution. (Parton.) Maynard, Merrill & Co. 
An interesting pamphlet. 

Side Lights on American History. (Elson.) The Macmillan Co. 
Vol. I. An excellent treatment of special topics. 

Our Country in Poem and Prose. (Persons.) American Book 
Co. 
Patriotic and choice selections. 

The Young American. (Judson.) Maynard, Merrill & Co. 



284 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

The Century Book of the American Revolution. (Brooks.) 
The Century Co. 

Stories of Old France. (Pitman.) American Book Co. 
An introduction to French history. 

Larger History. (Higginson.) Harper Brothers. 

A complete and interesting history of the United States to 1837. 

Alexander Hamilton. (Conant.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
A brief biography, simple and instructive. 

Stories from English History. (Church.) The Macmillan Co. 
A standard book of children's history stories. 

The Story of the English. (Guerber.) American Book Co. 

Tales of a Grandfather. (Scott.) Ginn & Co. 
Stories of Wallace, Bruce, Douglas, etc. 

Bunker Hill, Adams, and Jefferson. (Webster.) Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co. 
Somewhat difficult, but worth the effort of serious study. 

Source Book of English History. (Kendall.) The Macmillan Co. 
Excellent material. 

An Historical Geography. (MacCoun.) Silver, Burdett & Co. 
3. Choice books for teachers' use. 

Formation of the Union. (Hart.) Longmans, Green & Co. 
Excellent, with choice references. 

A Student's History of the United States. (Channing.) The 
Macmillan Co. 

Guide to the Study of American History. (Channing and Hart.) 
Ginn & Co. 
The best guide for teachers. 

The French War and the Revolution. (Sloane.) Scribner's. 
A full treatment of this period in one volume. 

The Growth of the American Nation. (Judson.) The Mac- 
millan Co. 



LIST OF BOOKS 285 

An excellent survey of American history for teachers. Inter- 
esting. 

The United States of America. (Channing.) 1765— 1865. The 
Macmillan Co. 
A somewhat complete historical survey of this period. 

The Story of the Revolution. (Lodge.) Scribner's. 
Two large volumes. Finely illustrated. 

Half Hours with American History. Vol.11. J. B. Lippincott. 

The Life of Samuel Adams. (Hosmer.) Houghton, Mifflin 
&Co. 
Most excellent as introductory to the Revolution. 

The American Revolution. (Fiske.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
2 Vols. 
Complete and valuable. 

The Critical Period of American History. (Fiske.) Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co. 
Of great value, and remarkably interesting. 

Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America. The Macmillan 
Co., Ginn & Co., Silver, Burdett & Co., Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co., American Book Co. 
A great piece of literature, and very instructive. 

George Washington. (Lodge.) 2 Vols. Statesmen Series. 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
An excellent and full biography. 

American History Leaflets. (Hart and Channing.) Lovell & Co. 
Thirty numbers. Best sources. 

Old South Leaflets. D. C. Heath & Co. 
Excellent source material. 

Orations on Washington and Landing of the Pilgrims. (Web- 
ster.) American Book Co. 

History of England. (Buckley.) The Macmillan Co. 



286 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Life of Oliver Cromwell. (Lamartine.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
One small volume. 

Life of Martin Luther. (Bunsen.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
A short biography. 

The Era of Protestant Revolution. (Seebohm.) Scribner's. 

Europe in the Sixteenth Century. (Johnson.) Rivington. 
The period of the Reformation. 

Brave Little Holland. (Griffis.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

A General History of Europe. (Thatcher and Schwill.) Scrib- 

ner 1 s. 
The Puritan Revolution. (Gardner.) Longmans, Green & Co. 

Student's History of England. (Gardner.) Longmans, Green 
&Co. 

Short History of the English People. (Green.) The Macmillan 

Co. 
The Teaching of History and Civics. (Bourne.) Longmans, 

Green & Co. 
Valuable for teachers. 

EIGHTH GRADE 
i. Books for children's study. 

One good text-book of American history, such as History of 
the United States. (Fiske.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. This 
book is somewhat difficult in parts, and needs to be illustrated 
and enlarged from source material, history readers, biographies, 
and larger histories as follows : — 

Formation of the Union. (Hart.) Longmans, Green & Co. 

Chapters VII to XII. A clear treatment of topics up to 1829. 
This book is designed for older students, but in connection with 
other fuller materials may serve also for eighth-grade pupils. 

Side Lights on American History. (Elson.) 2 Vols. The 
Macmillan Co. 
These two volumes furnish an excellent supplement to the text- 



LIST OF BOOKS 287 

book. A few important topics are handled with descriptive ful- 
ness, so as to furnish clear and interesting pictures. The second ' 
volume deals with the period of the Civil War and the later history. 

Alexander Hamilton. (Conant.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

A good, brief account of Hamilton's part in making and launch- 
ing the government. 

Abraham Lincoln. (Schurz.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
A brief, masterly essay on Lincoln's life and character. 

Source Book of American History. (Hart.) The Macmillan 
Co. 

Historical Geography of the United States. (MacCoun.) Sil- 
ver, Burdett & Co. 

History of England for Beginners. (Buckley.) The Macmillan 
Co. 
The latter part. 

The History of Colonization. (Morris.) 2 Vols. The Mac- 
millan Co. 

England's Story. (Tappan.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

The latter part of the book is a good, brief statement of English 

and European history in the last hundred years. 

The Story of Caesar. (Clarke.) American Book Co. 

Stories from English History. (Church.) The Macmillan Co. 

2. Children's supplementary books for reading and reference. 
The Growth of the American Nation. (Judson.) The Mac- 
millan Co. 
An interesting and vigorous treatment of leading topics. 

American History told by Contemporaries. (Hart.) The Mac- 
millan Co. 

Vols. Ill and IV. An excellent collection of source materials, 
well arranged for easy reference. Very valuable for school library . 
Children's Stories of American Progress. (Wright.) Scribner's. 

Very simple narratives on special topics. 



288 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Children's Life of Lincoln. (Putnam.) A. C. McClurg. 
A simple story of Lincoln's life. 

The Making of the Ohio Valley States. (Drake.) Scribner's. 

The Men who made the Nation. (Sparks.) The Macmillan Co. 
The second half of the book. It is chiefly biographical. 

Old South Leaflets. D. C. Heath & Co. 

Several of these important papers belong to this period. 

A Larger History of the United States of America to the close 
of Jackson's Administration. (Higginson.) Harper 
Brothers. 

Peter Cooper. (Raymond.) Houghton. Mifflin & Co. 

Poems of American Patriotism. (Matthews.) Scribner's. 

Words of Lincoln. Maynard, Merrill & Co. 

Twelve Naval Captains. (Sewall.) Scribner's. 

Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors. (Barnes.) The Macmillan 

Co. 
American History Studies. (Caldwell.) Ainsworth & Co. 

Girls Who Became Famous. (Bolton.) T. Y. Crowell & Co. 

Four American Inventors. (Perry.) Werner School Book Co. 

The Gettysburg Speech. (Lincoln.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Boys of "61. (Coffin.) Harper Brothers. 

Four American Naval Heroes. (Beebe.) Werner School Book 
Co. 

My Hunt after the Captain. (Holmes.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Julius Caesar. (Liddell.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Life of Nelson. (Southey.) Ginn & Co., American Book Co., 
The Macmillan Co. 

The Great Debate. (Hayne-Webster.) Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co. 
Somewhat difficult, but of great value. 



LIST OF BOOKS 289 

The Two Great Retreats. (Grote-Segur.) Ginn & Co. 
Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. 

History of Rome for Beginners. (Shuckburgh.) The Macmillan 
Co. 

Explorers and Travelers. (Greely.) Scribner's. 

3. Books for teachers. 

Student's History of the United States. (Channing.) The 
Macmillan Co. 
Excellent. 

Guide to the Study of American History. (Channing and Hart.) 
Ginn & Co. 

Nature and Man in America. (Shaler.) Scribner's. 

The Making of the Nation. (Walker.) Scribner's. 

Thomas Jefferson. (Morse.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Alexander Hamilton. (Lodge.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

John Quincy Adams. (Morse.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Daniel Webster. (Lodge.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

These four biographies belong to the American Statesmen 
Series. 

Civil Government. (Macy.) Ginn & Co. 

The Last Quarter Century in the United States. (Andrews.) 
2 Vols. Scribner's. 

American Territorial Development. (Caldwell.) Ainsworth & 

Co. 
Half Hours with American History. Vol. II. J. B. Lippincott. 

The United States of America. (Channing.) 1765-1865. The 
Macmillan Co. 
An excellent survey. 

The Middle Period. (Burgess.) Scribner's. 

u 



290 SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

Division and Reunion. (Wilson.) 1829-1889. Longmans, 
Green & Co. 

American History Leaflets. 30 numbers. (Hart and Channing.) 
Lovell & Co. 

Bird's-eye View of our Civil War. (Dodge.) Houghton, Mif- 
flin & Co. 

The Civil War and the Constitution. (Burgess.) 2 Vols. 
Scribner's. 

The Fortune of the Republic. (Emerson.) Houghton, Mifflin 
&Co. 

Abraham Lincoln. (Morse.) 2 Vols. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Europe in the Nineteenth Century. (Judson.) Scribner's. 
A good survey of important later events in Europe. 

History of Modern Europe. (Schwill.) Scribner's. 
Excellent for the teacher's use. 

Shorter History of England. (Green.) The Macmillan Co. 

Source Book of English History. (Kendall.) The Macmillan 
Co. 

General History of Europe. (Thatcher and Schwill.) Scribner's. 

European Colonies. (Payne.) The Macmillan Co. 

History of the Colonization of Africa. (Johnston.) University 
Press. 

Essay on Lord Clive. (Macaulay.) The Macmillan Co. 

Essay on Warren Hastings. (Macaulay.) The Macmillan Co. 

Report of the Committee of Seven. The Macmillan Co. 
An excellent discussion of the history problem. 

Methods of teaching and studying History. (Edited by Hall.) 
D. C. Heath & Co. 

Counsel on the Reading of Books. (Introduction by Van Dyke.) 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



LIST OF BOOKS 29 1 

The teaching of History and Civics. (Bourne.) Longmans, 

Green & Co. 
How to study and teach History. (Hinsdale.) D. Appleton 

&Co. 
Method in History. (Mace.) Ginn & Co. 

McMaster's History of the People of the United States. 5 Vols. 

D. Appleton & Co. 
History of the United States. 6 Vols. Schouler. 

Narrative and Critical History of America. 8 Vols. (Justin 
Winsor.) Illustrated. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



METHODS IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 



A Series of Educational Books in Two Groups covering the General 

Principles of Method and Its Special Applications to the 

Common School 



CHARLES A. McMURRY, Ph.D. 

Northern Illinois State Normal School, DeKalb, Illinois 

WITH 

F. M. McMURRY 

AS JOINT AUTHOR FOR METHOD OF RECITATION 

I. BOOKS OF GENERAL METHOD IN EDUCATION 

The three books in this group deal with the fundamental, com- 
prehensive principles of Education for the school as a whole, 
and include both instruction and management. 

II. BOOKS OF SPECIAL METHOD IN COMMON SCHOOL 

STUDIES. Each school study is treated in a separate book, 
and the selection and arrangement of material, and the method 
of instruction appropriate to that study throughout its course, 
are fully discussed. Illustrative lessons and extensive lists of 
books of special value as helps to teachers and schools are 
included. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 

BOSTON CHICAGO ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 

ioo Boylston St. 378-388 Wabash Ave. Empire Build' g 319-325 Sansome St. 

I 



GENERAL METHOD IN EDUCATION 

THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

BASED ON THE IDEAS OF HERBART 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY 

New edition, revised and enlarged. Cloth. 12mo. 331 pp. 
90 cents net, postage 10 cents 

This volume discusses fully the controlling principles of our progres- 
sive modern education, such as The Aim of Education; The Materials 
and Sources of Moral Training ; The Relative Value of Studies in the 
School Course ; The Nature and Value of Interest as a Vital Element 
in Instruction ; The Correlation of Studies ; Inductive and Deductive 
Processes as Fundamental to All Thinking ; Apperception, its Close 
and Constant Application to the Process of Learning ; The Will, its 
Training and Function and its Close Relation to Other Forms of 
Mental Action. 

The book closes with an account of Herbart and his disciples in 
Germany, and a summary of their pronounced ideas and influence 
upon education. 

THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION 

New edition, revised and enlarged 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY and FRANK M. McMURRY 

Cloth. 12mo. 339 pp. 90 cents net, postage 10 cents 

This book, as a whole, is designed to simplify, organize, and illustrate 
the chief principles of class-room method in elementary schools. A few 
important fundamental principles are carefully worked out as a basis. 
The essential steps, in the acquisition of knowledge in all studies, are 
worked out and applied to different branches. The developing method 
of instruction so much used in the oral treatment of lessons is worked 
out, and the method of careful and suitable questioning discussed. 

Two chapters are given, consisting of Illustrative Lessons selected 
from the different studies and worked out in full, as examples of a right 
method. In these examples, and also in the discussions, the applica- 
tion of the principles of apperception, interest, induction, and deduc- 
tion to class-room work are shown. The peculiar application of these 
various principles to different studies is carefully discussed. 



SCHOOL AND CLASS MAN AGEflENT — In Preparation 

2 



SPECIAL METHOD IN COMMON SCHOOL STUDIES 

SPECIAL AETHOD IN THE READING OF COM- 
PLETE ENGLISH CLASSICS IN THE 
COMMON SCHOOLS 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY 

Cloth. 12mo. 254 pp. 75 cents, postage 9 cents 

This discusses in a comprehensive way the regular reading lessons, 
the choice of stories, poems, and longer masterpieces, adapted to the 
needs of the various grades from the fourth to the eighth school year 
inclusive ; the value for school use of the best literature, including 
complete masterpieces, both long and short ; method in reading ; and 
principles of class-room work. A descriptive list of more than four 
hundred books forms the last chapter. The list has been carefully 
made, and is designed to assist teachers and superintendents in select- 
ing suitable reading material for the successive grades. 



SPECIAL nETHOD IN PRIHARY READING AND 
ORAL WORK IN STORY TELLING 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY 

THIS BOOK IS NEARLY READY 

The relation of oral story work to early exercises in primary reading 
is explained at length. A full discussion of oral methods in primary 
grades and a detailed account of primary exercises in reading are given. 
The use of games for incidental reading is also fully discussed and 
illustrated. 

SPECIAL METHOD IN HISTORY 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY 

NEW EDITION IN PREPARATION 

This book contains a course of study in history with a full discus- 
sion of methods of treating topics. The value, selection, and arrange- 
ment of historical materials for each grade are discussed, and illustrative 
lessons given. The relation of history to geography, literature, and 
other studies is treated, and lists of books suitable for each year are 
supplied. 

3 



SPECIAL METHOD IN GEOGRAPHY 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY 

NEW EDITION IN PREPARATION 

The entire course of study is laid out after a careful selection of 
topics. Methods of class instruction are fully discussed, and illustra- 
tions are given of geographical topics treated in detail. The close 
relation of geography to other studies is shown, and the best lists of 
books supplied. 



SPECIAL nETHOD IN NATURAL SCIENCE 

By CHARLES A. McMURRY 

NEW EDITION IN PREPARATION 

The history of science teaching in elementary schools is given. The 
basis for selecting the topics for a course of study, and the method of 
class instruction suitable to object study, experimentation, etc., are fully 
discussed. The book contains, also, a carefully selected list of the 
best books for the use of teachers and pupils. 



A COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE EIGHT GRADES 
OF THE COnriON SCHOOL 



IN PREPARATION 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 

BOSTON CHICAGO ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 

ioo Boylston St. 378-388 Wabash Ave . Empire Build 'g 319-325 Sansome St. 

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